


The Truth is Sometimes Equivalent to Love—Always Blind

by Oreana



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Assassin - Freeform, Blind Ignis Scientia, Complete, Drama, Drama & Romance, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Love, Older Ignis, Older chocobros, Reader-Insert, Reader-Interactive, Romance, Romantic Fluff, Templar - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-11
Updated: 2018-08-05
Packaged: 2019-01-16 05:07:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 100,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12336084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oreana/pseuds/Oreana
Summary: The Assassins are said to work under the mighty King of Lucis while the Templars throw their lot in with Niflheim. Sent to find out information about King Noctis, his army, and kingdom to reveal his weakness, the Reader encounters an interesting foe in her way.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A 10 chapter commission for Martascully on Tumblr. Thanks so much for the commission!

 

Lestallum—a city that brought a calming, glittering night to combat against the daemons was full of life per usual that starry evening. Casual banter kept even the dying hours of the town full of some form of energy as (Y/N) kept her head down and her attention focused on why she was sent there.

Hands buried in the pockets of her old jean jacket, her black and mudded boots shuffled across the imperfect, paved ground though finding it within herself to kick about some pebbles and an empty can for the sake of appearing natural. Eyes shifting up to the Leville Hotel as it inched ever closer to her as she dragged onward, (Y/N) fixed her collar and upturned it to not only combat the chill of the night’s kiss but to try and obscure her appearance to anybody nearby.

 _Here_ , she thought to herself with a firm look to her eyes. _The information I need to aid our cause into Insomnia should be here…_ But if it were true—that the four assassin men would be lying in wait inside—(Y/N) would have the time of her life cut out for her if her distraction didn’t arrive. Stopping short just at the entryway, her frowned deepened as her eyes shifted about in anxiousness wait for such a thing to occur.

The Templar Order, which allied themselves under Niflheim’s control were asked to primarily focus on the assassins that roamed in the shadows in service of Lucian royals, the Kingsglaive, and to find and keep a close watch on the crowned King Noctis of Lucis wherever he may very well be. (Y/N) could only assume he was primarily on the throne where most royals tended to stay.

The moments passed as her mind wandered, and upon checking the time on her watch, she sighed with impatience. “Where the hell are they?” (Y/N) murmured, her words escaping into crystalline vapor upon the cold air as she remained just out of sight of the entrance of the hotel. “Now is the perfect time to smoke out these rats so I can hack into their devices to steal the information I require…” It was there, unknowingly, she caressed the mini computer she usually kept latched on the outer part of her leather boot though had it buried within the inner pocket of her jacket to remind herself it was there for such a task.

Before (Y/N) could hope to complain further, the muffled sound of screams could be heard in the distance and it was there she knew the Order attacked with the Magitek soldiers at their command. Knowing it would draw the attention of those she was unequipped to fight, (Y/N) hid herself further into the shadows as the sounds of anger and fear quaked within the night and roused those about to their feet in time.

Urgent shuffling resonated in the evening and voices soon arose just near the staircase leading into the hotel. (Y/N) moved a bit more to the sights of the men dressed in assassin robes to notice that they were indeed the targets she was meant to investigate in regards to their belongings.                                                                                

“What the hell is going on!” a rather low voice bellowed from the group of four.

“The Imperials!” a frantic tone responded from the group. “They’re here!”

“Gladio,” began a more regal tenor just out of sight as (Y/N) ducked back out of view in worry of being seen, “you’re with me—Ignis, stay close to Prompto.”

The men fled into the night, a grin spreading upon the woman’s face as she hurried within the hotel at that moment, ignoring the attendant at the front counter who (Y/N) was lucky to not have witness her sudden and shady entrance. Her heart was beating heavily within her chest as she ran down the hallway to hunt for the right room upon her flipping open her little pocket computer she used for everything.

“Sal,” (Y/N) commanded to her handheld upon fishing it out of her clothing, causing the blank screen to instantly come to life with a rather sea-green look and minor fragments of data blinking in highlighted green code across the screen, “see if you cannot pick up a code signal regarding royal Lucian technology—Insomnia to be precise, of course.”

“Checking, (Y/N),” the robotic voice (which was programmed to sound feminine) responded in kind, the screen illuminating to a built in map that had been installed months ago when she had visited the town for a vacationing trip.

If (Y/N) were lucky…and she hoped she would be…given the hour, the men would most likely leave their belongings behind at the hotel.

Success.

One of the upcoming bedrooms on the right lit up urgently. “The only room on this floor that has such a signal emanating from this locality is here. Appears to be a phone of sorts from what my processors can gather, (Y/N).”

“Thanks, Sal!” she praised, shutting the device down for the time being before making it to the door only to realize it was locked much to her dismay. “Dammit…An electronic lock, of course!” Weapons of any sort weren’t really her thing. (Y/N) carried a knife on her but even she was lousy with that bit. Her eyes looked cautiously about the hallway. “Override it, Sal.”

The device hummed before the lock clicked and the door was able to be pushed open by (Y/N).  She cared not to admire the scenery from where she stood opposite the balcony or comment at the rather unkempt look on one or two sides of the room in particular. (Y/N) had to find the phone that was lucky to be kept behind during the sudden attack on the town. When her handheld found where the signal was coming from, (Y/N) hurried over to the bed in question that appeared rather tidy and as though it weren’t touched or hardly had been slept in through the night.

“Here,” (Y/N) whispered as the commotion continued just outside from her backup, grabbing at the phone that was pushed under the pillow for some reason. “Guess the others were smart enough to keep theirs on them if they have phones, but not this one.” Connecting her handheld to the phone in question, (Y/N) watched as the screen lit up to show a password block. “Sal, can you hack it?”

The computer hummed, lights flickering on its interface. “It will take me just a moment, (Y/N),” the feminine voice warned as she worked on retrieving the password.

(Y/N) became nervous, lips moving inward as she looked back from the front door to her computer as one number showed up on the screen while Sal worked on fishing out the others. She couldn’t help but be nervous. In comparison to herself on the field, she was not really somebody to watch. Even to be dropped off at Lestallum she had to be brought in by car so the daemons couldn’t overrun her. Now she was dealing with four assassins that seemed to be just under King Noctis’ control. If any of them returned, she would be at their mercy.

Another number out of, what appeared to be, five total.

“Hurry up, Sal…!” (Y/N) whispered impatiently as the device continued to unearth the password so it could be accessed.

It took at least ten agonizing minutes, but eventually the password was released and stored within her handheld. Quickly, (Y/N) typed in the code on the phone to get to the main screen.

Apps about useless things decorated the main face—cooking and some other stuff that reminded (Y/N) of a royal butler. “Really? And this guy is an assassin?” she muttered unimpressed as if to put her mind at ease. “Sal, look for anything regarding Insomnia that you can find—the Kingsglaive, the Assassins, and anything about our ‘dear’ King Noctis. If you can find buried codes in regards to certain locations, all the better,” she grinned.

The data gathering went on for awhile—to the point (Y/N) lost track of time and didn’t care to pay attention to the fact someone was just outside on the balcony watching her. The footsteps were light and within a matter of moments, a gloved hand came down upon the back of her neck and forced her cheek to the covers upon the bed to keep her pinned, allowing her to breathe and sparing her for the moment though the attacker could have easily ended her life if they had seen fit.

“And just what are you up to?” the male voice asked not sounding challenged or threatened until the plucky sounding tone (Y/N) heard earlier chimed in.

“She’s a Templar! She’s extracting data from your phone, Ignis!” the man exclaimed, (Y/N) seeing from the corner of her eye as a hand grabbed at the phone in question and her device connected to it.

“What!” The grip on her neck tightened as if threatening to do more, but given how it only strengthened for a moment, (Y/N) knew it was merely a threat.

From where she was pinned, (Y/N) noticed a blond haired assassin frantically going for the screen of her handheld computer as if to work on deleting the data she had gathered. (Y/N)’s heart nearly froze dead in her chest, her hands trying with all her might to push upward and escape but the man who had her was far stronger. “Sal! Emergency shutdown!”

The screen went blank and the blond haired assassin grumbled at losing his chance to put things right. “I might can force it back on again…!” he murmured in thought, working on finding the on switch first and foremost.

“She won’t work without me,” (Y/N) commented in a rather challenging manner, hoping to seem intimidating enough to have them release her. “You can turn her on if you like, but without a password only I know, she’s useless to you!”

Ignis turned to his companion, hood still very much up and in place to obscure most of his features. They wore dark clothing with bits of red underneath some areas of the attire, the symbol of the Assassins embroidered within some parts of the clothes from what (Y/N) took note of. “I say destroy it then, Prompto.”

(Y/N)’s eyes widened, Prompto having turned then to notice the horrified gaze, feeling sympathetic to being so close to technology to where he struggled with the thought. Quickly standing back to attention and frowning at (Y/N)’s actions, he tried to consider such a thing with his hand moving higher above him to threaten in exerting force upon Sal to break it on its way down to the floor should he choose, but Prompto struggled as a disappointed sigh at the thought escaped him through his nostrils, eyes looking (Y/N) up and down, and his fingers curled tightly upon the computer.

“Prompto!” Ignis commented rather sternly as he seemed to feel the man hesitate, his grip curling about the back of the woman’s neck once more to keep her firmly in place still regardless of his divide in attention. “Destroy it, or the information could fall into the Templar’s hands and eventually our King’s worst enemy…!”

“Don’t!” (Y/N) begged as she could see the hesitant pause as well and hoped it would work in her favor. “At the very least…if you want the data erased just…” She closed her eyes tightly, biting at her lower lip given the reasons she was asked to do this to begin with. “…Just give Sal back to me, and I will delete it, but don’t destroy her!”

Seemed Prompto was being swayed given the evident upset in his features, but regardless, his blue eyes turned curiously to his masked partner as if waiting for instructions further. “Ignis…?”

A sigh escaped Ignis from his lips and his hold on (Y/N)’s neck seemed to loosen. Perhaps he heard and felt something in her actions and words, for it was in that moment he released her at (Y/N)’s command. “Do as you promised,” Ignis ordered, standing to the side to let the Templar get to her feet with Prompto offering back the computer in his possession. “Then, we will forget this little encounter ever occurred.”

“Really?” Prompto asked. “Just…let her go?”

(Y/N) wished she could ask this Prompto to keep quiet and not ask such a thing as she valued her life. Taking Sal back from his hold, she turned the screen back on again and out of view of them, entered her password to access the main database.

Ignis’ arms crossed over his chest, head slightly lowered as he turned to acknowledge his companion from just under the shadow of his hood. “I feel we have very little need to worry if my assumptions are correct,” Ignis murmured between the two though shortly after, his head shot upright and he turned to the door as if expecting someone to be there.

“What is it?” Prompto asked, readying his gun at Ignis’ sudden stance change.

(Y/N) could hear it too as the rattling of armor and metal got closer, turning to the door as well as she pretended to work on destroying the data only to make a hidden copy of it to keep on record. “You both best get out of here,” she whispered in warning.

“Magitek soldiers,” Ignis commented, hurrying towards the door to make sure it was shut firmly and that the lock would activate as intended.

“Did you, uh, delete the data?” Prompto asked, his eyes narrowing at (Y/N) to try and appear intimidating, erasing his earlier evidence of sympathy.

(Y/N) tried her equal best to look and sound defeated in her cause, turning her computer screen to Prompto to let him see that it was clear minus a few things regarding Niflheim and the Templar Order. “It’s done. Feel better now?” she asked sarcastically before pocketing Sal to be sure she remained out of their reach as she ventured towards the open balcony as discretely as possible. “Now, if you’ll excuse me…I have places to be!”

Ignis frowned at (Y/N)’s sudden change in attitude as he kept his focus on the door to be sure the soldiers didn’t enter. “Prompto, grab her!” he commanded, not wishing to waste breath on the reasons why.

Startled and confused, Prompto’s eyes darted about from Ignis to (Y/N) before hurrying over towards the escaping Templar, running for the terrace after her. “She’s escaping through the balcony!” he warned, but the assassin’s voice was so loud that it rattled the soldiers on the opposite side in the hallway and the door was soon impacted with so much force, it knocked back Ignis and splintered the wooden entryway.

(Y/N) didn’t have time or the care to watch the scene. With what little acrobatics training she had, she took to the railing and leapt outward to try and land in a haystack down below. Closing her eyes tightly as she aligned her body to where it wouldn’t hurt upon impact, (Y/N) met with the hay and quickly pulled herself to her feet to rush out of Lestallum as quickly as possible—no plan to aid her.

This didn’t stop Prompto from trying to follow behind (Y/N), but just as he was about to aid in the chase, he stopped at the sound of his companion struggling with the soldiers that had broken down the door. Having a sense of urgency with Ignis over even data lost to the Templars and even Niflheim, Prompto stopped struggling with the idea of where to go first and quickly ran back into the room to help his friend with his gun firing a few shots at the soldiers.

(Y/N) was frantic—as the thunder bellowed in the background and the rain began to fall shortly thereafter, she kept her eyes forward and rushed through the chaos to make it to safety away from the assassins she believed to be tailing her. But it was the middle of the night and the daemons would be everywhere, so (Y/N) was stuck for the time being unless she could find a ride.

Not that it would be logical to even ask for one given the attack from Niflheim. Her fellow comrades could be anywhere in the town, and she needed an escape urgently. Those that couldn’t fight and had a ride left already in a panic. Hopping in place a bit and trying to shake the nerves from her, it was there she saw a black, four-seat convertible with an interior made of dark leather within the parking lot of Lestallum.

“Perfect!” she cheered to herself, hurrying over to it to notice that it was locked and without its keys.

Not a problem to her as she used her computer to override the electronic lock on the car and let herself in. Shutting the door and hoping there was a spare key somewhere, (Y/N) checked everywhere just in case that was an option. That one assassin was dumb enough to leave behind his phone…maybe she would get lucky twice?

“(Y/N),” Sal began from where she was placed on the vehicle’s passenger seat shortly after use, “I can override the car’s functions and get it to work at my command as though it has a set of keys. Just insert me into the car adapter outlet, and I can work from there.”

“Amazing,” (Y/N) breathed in praise, doing as Sal requested. Through the chaos still occurring just outside the car, (Y/N) felt relief wash over her as the engine began to roar to life, the vehicle moving without her even having to touch the wheel (thank goodness, because she hated driving and preferred it in the hands of others). “You’re such a life saver, Sal!” (Y/N) said with a nod, knowing she could have asked one of the backup crew members to give her a lift but given the sensitivity of the data, it was probably wise to spread some distance between her and the fight since she was already spotted beforehand.

When she was safe…it was there she would ask for aid.

“Where to?” Sal inquired though heading in the direction of Niflheim just as a precaution and prediction as to their destination.

“Niflheim for now, but we’ll see if the gas can even get us that far,” (Y/N) answered as the car went onward, away from the horrific scene. “I just need a place to be for now with the daemons everywhere.” She reclined back to try and find peace in that thought as the leather fit comfortably about her body in the process. The screams and the sound of weapons colliding with explosive, powerful magic attacks growing fainter as the vehicle drove onward, (Y/N) sighed in relief as she shut her eyes for the time being. “The quicker we get back home, the better,” she murmured, her mind a mess given the circumstances that be and what threats were placed on her shoulders to retrieve such important data to begin with.


	2. Chapter 2

The drive was a long one, and it would be with how far (Y/N) had to go to bring the data back to the King of Niflheim as requested. She was running on very little rest, very little food as well and the combination brought her to suddenly slumber there in the car as her device she created took to the controls and guided her out of harm’s way.

Her dreams were hardly pleasant and the stressful realization she was out on the road at night didn’t exactly make things much better. Painful reminders of the past collided with horrific imagery of the very idea of being surrounded by daemons, being torn apart by them or just tortured at the mere thought that her loved ones were coming after her having befallen into such a fate, no thanks in kind to the Starscourage. When the sounds of the daemons she recognized from beyond her window from time to time started to resonate more clearly in her mind, (Y/N) shot awake within the car, a horrified and panicked gasp escaping her.

Her eyes closed tightly as she beat her palm against her forehead as if to demand the foul visions to leave her, but upon realizing that the car wasn’t moving any longer, she focused and saw that it had stalled out in the road, several miles from Lestallum and in the middle of the night no less. Where? She couldn’t say, and it seemed that even Sal would be of little help as the computer was completely offline.

“S-Sal…?” (Y/N) questioned, grabbing at the handheld to try and turn it back on only to find her being unresponsive. “Oh no…No, no, no! Don’t die on me!” She panicked, figuring the battery might have run dry sometime ago.

The car—if it could still run, (Y/N) could plug in Sal to recharge her as they idled, but it was there she realized that the car might have run out of gas to begin with to cause Sal to lose power and also…as she fumbled about for the keys and finding none, (Y/N) remembered she hijacked the vehicle. The keys weren’t exactly around or on her person to find a means to start it back up.

She was now stuck.

“Dammit!” (Y/N) swore angrily, smacking her palms on the stirring wheel before resting her head upon it with a heavy sigh. “By the Astrals…not here…not now…”

The sound of what seemed like an Iron Giant was terribly close and in the distance of where she was locked within the car, (Y/N) could make out the distant threatening glow of a few ice bombs. Making sure all of the doors were locked, (Y/N) started to scoot into the back of the vehicle frantically, taking the device with her while feeling even lonelier than before.

“I wish you were here right now, Sal,” she breathed somberly. Even if the computer was merely just that, it was a voice…a voice that she connected with on many personal levels, and not having that voice anymore was like losing a friend all over again. “By the Gods, it’s my stupid fault for not making sure you were properly charged.”

(Y/N) wanted to cry as she hid in the backseat, cradling the computer like it was a wounded friend she planned to either die with or try to endure the night through together. Being on the road asked to do this task was bad enough, but having to sit in a car in the middle of nowhere with nobody to accompany her was even worse. How long was she asleep for? Did it just turn night? She had no means of which to judge the time of day, and if she sat in the car for too long, it would eventually be overrun with daemons if they caught onto her location.

A quivering inhale quaked from her lips as she thought of what to do. (Y/N) could either sit there and just wait to die, or hope that the daemons not far away wouldn’t notice her, or she could try to be brave and take her leave into the night to find a gas station or a rest stop or something with lights that could protect her.

“Man up, (Y/N),” she tried to encourage herself as her legs felt of rubber at the very idea of stepping outside into the night. “You’re a damn Templar for heaven’s sake…Not a good one, really…One that gathers information and is a bit clueless with fighting but…” Remembering her station in the ranks of the Templar Knights, (Y/N) moved cautiously over to the nearby window where she saw the ice bombs and heard the Iron Giant earlier. As she double checked to be sure of their placement, she couldn’t help but feel a bit panicked that the ice bombs might at least be getting closer. The Iron Giant she could only hear with it being too dark to make out where it truly was located in the nearby woods, and that sound alone made her cringe as the dreadful grinding of metal when it moved was often something that pervaded her nightmares late at night.

(Y/N) continued to watch, and as she did, it was there her heart began to race into a blinding speed of panic. The ice bomb daemons were getting closer, and it was then and there she knew she had to escape or be met with the horrible consequences of them overrunning her.

Out the other side…As far as she knew, nothing was on that side, and (Y/N) was still on the road. Perhaps if she followed it closely, she could find a rest stop somewhere. It would still be dangerous to be so out in the open as it were as daemons could spawn anywhere, but she had to try. Die sooner or die later—there wasn’t really a wonderful choice in the matter.

Tucking Sal away into her inner coat pocket, (Y/N) pulled out her dagger to feel some sort of safety as she took to the road ahead and leaving the car behind.

It was horribly cold, but (Y/N) could hardly focus on such a frivolous matter when all she could hear were the groans and threatening hisses of daemons from all around her. The light was scarce, making it near impossible to see down the road at all. Seemed wherever she was by this point, the lights that usually remained on the road to light the path ahead were either flickering or gone completely. (Y/N) resorted to outstretching her hand to make sure that the area in front of her wasn’t wood, stone, or anything else blocking her path but merely the open road.

However, the reminder of lack of food settled upon her and (Y/N) rested against the nearby metal railing with a hand upon her stomach. “I should have packed something instead of thinking this would be such a clean cut job,” she grumbled, the pain making her feel queasy and lightheaded. “Maybe water somewhere might do…?”

While it would prove further dangerous to go off of the road by this point, if the light ever returned, (Y/N) would be able to find her way back to it. She had to abide by her body’s needs at this point, and it was there she began to wander into the nearby woodlands, hoping to locate a stream or any water that could suffice.

Again, without light, it was a maze of threatening darkness and a fight of the mind, which screamed at her to turn back and run to the car and just wait there till light returned, as every imaginable thing which hung from trees brushed against her face and body to tease the idea something was after her. (Y/N) brushed it all away feverishly, hoping to continue her journey to the sound of water she could soon just hear in the distance. “Almost there,” she whispered to herself, remaining low and using her knife to cut away any ivy or foliage that dared to try and halt her from the destination.

After moving her way cautiously through the terrain, it was there (Y/N) finally saw it—water. It was a vast river, and after taking a quick look about to be sure no daemons were around, (Y/N) hurried to the riverside to kneel down and drink.

Indulging in the cool liquid, (Y/N) felt life return to her for a bit as it soothed her drying throat, harshly raked with every breath of cold air she inhaled. Even if food would be a delight by this point as well, she did her best to shake off that petty desire in hopes that she was closer to a rest stop by this point. Frowning at her careless actions, (Y/N) dug back into her coat to fish out her computer to try once more to turn her on, just hoping that what happened back at the car was her not thinking clearly or waiting long enough.

No results were yielded that she desired. The buttons would press but the screen remained black.

A sigh of disappointment escaped (Y/N), and she pocketed Sal once more before bringing her hands to her face to try and remove the exhaustion and sadness from it. “My only friend to talk to, and I have to hope to the Gods that I make it to a place with a power outlet to charge her.” Her palm rested on her forehead as she let the tranquil movement of the river’s water calm her prior anxiousness. “(Y/N), you’re a big idiot for not thinking clearly!”

The sounds of tranquility soon became polluted with the noise of movement…something moving about unnaturally in the nearby surrounding woodlands that brought (Y/N) to a defensive stance with her dagger out and at the ready (even if horrible at using it). From the way the body seemed to move upon the ground, she knew what it could be but prayed she was merely wrong until the creature sprung into action with its fangs bared.

A naga…face of a human with the body of a snake and venom that could either turn you into a frog or cause a worse, painful poison to leech the life from your veins. They were so rare to see late at night, or so she was told, and now (Y/N) had to try and face off against one. 

“I am so fucked,” (Y/N) muttered to herself, watching in paralyzing fear as the naga stood as far upright as it could on his scaly body to loom over its victim. (Y/N)’s legs felt of iron, impossible to move. Breathing quivering with fright, she realized it would be impractical to fight this thing as she was, and it was there she turned to try and run.

Big mistake.

Seeing its meal dart off and away, the naga attacked quickly and without mercy. The large serpent half of the daemon landed before (Y/N), blocking her path and coiling about her without a second thought in the matter in hopes to squeeze the life from her.

It all happened far too quickly for (Y/N) to properly get away, but while she was in the clutches of the beast’s slimy scales, she reacted with the fear of her life on the line and stabbed into the snake body of the naga, only to witness as it spat angrily at her with the blade hardly harming it. With the fangs so close and in her face, (Y/N) closed her eyes tightly and just waited for the worst of it.

“I guess I’ll be joining you soon then…” (Y/N) muttered cryptically to herself, and as those words left her, she felt the horrible, piercing sting of the creature’s fangs biting into her left arm.

A scream of agonizing pain ruptured forth from (Y/N)’s lips. The fangs sunk deep within her flesh, blood bubbling forth and the horrible contamination of the daemon’s poison was only worsening things. This would be a slow and painful way to die, but (Y/N) accepted earlier that it might and could happen depending the daemon that might get a hold of her.

Her sight was beginning to blur, the blood she was losing alone was massive by this point, and the stinging sensation of the poison was almost a mere numbing memory on her arm given how hard it was to even try and remain conscious. Head rolling back onto the moving scales of the beast, (Y/N) accepted the idea of death by that point as it would be far better than suffering as this, but just as her eyes were about to close to embrace the very idea, she saw fire erupt from the back of the head of the naga, making the fangs retract violently and her coiling hold loosen to where (Y/N) fell to the ground.

Everything was still a haze. (Y/N) could hear someone fighting the beast, but it was hard to even pick her head up at this point to watch the battle. From where she had fallen and with how dull her senses were getting, (Y/N) hadn’t realized that Sal had fallen a few feet from her out of her coat pocket till she saw the machine just to the right of her when her sights focused for a mere moment. Eyes widening at the sight of the device and the value it had in her life, she outstretched her hand for it pitifully as her body felt weighed down by some invisible force. 

Sight going in and out of focus, sounds dulling around her, she hadn’t even realized the fight was over until the person responsible for killing the daemon moved casually towards her, old leaves and twigs cracking under his simple movements, he bent down to scoop up the machine. Eyes widening, (Y/N) used what strength she had to look upward at the one responsible for arriving as they had…and her heart sunk into the pit of her empty stomach.

It was one of the assassins from earlier at the hotel in Lestallum. If she didn’t die soon, this man would surely end her. “Quite the dilemma you’ve given us,” his accented voice commented, trying to turn the device on only to receive the same response (Y/N) had earlier, to which he pocketed it. “First you steal my phone’s data and any imperative information in regards to my King, and then you thieve our car, forcing us to separate in locating you.”

Worrying what would become of Sal over herself, she frantically grabbed at the man’s leather shoe that was wet from the muck on the ground as well as the blood of the deceased daemon. It was a pitiful hold, one that was of desperation. “Please…please, don’t kill her…!” she begged, remembering how adamant this assassin named Ignis was in destroying Sal back in Lestallum.

Her voice was so quiet and sounded as though she were choking on something as the words struggled to form properly. Squatting down before (Y/N), the hooded man brought his finger to his lips to silence her words. “Be quiet, my dear. It’ll all be over soon enough.”

(Y/N) didn’t know what he meant, but her body grew heavier by the moment to where she could hardly stay awake much longer and passed out.

\--

The pain should have subsided for the dead, and yet, (Y/N) was still feeling the resonating, sharp throbbing sensation in her arm even as she lie comfortably still. Realizing that none of the comfort and discomfort she was feeling made much sense given who she encountered last night, (Y/N)’s eyes opened quickly, inhaling a sharp gasp to just feel relief that she could even draw breath. But at the sudden movement she imposed upon herself, it caused the pain in her arm to act up, and (Y/N) flinched with her body recoiling.

“I would advise you take it easy,” spoke that same voice from last night somewhere in the room (Y/N) now found herself within.

Her eyes focused, pinning down the man in the hotel room who was just exiting the bathroom it seemed with a bowl in his hand and a cloth draped over the side. His hood was down this time, and she noted he had dusty blond hair, slicked back in a short cut with glasses that were so dark it was hard to even see his eyes. From what (Y/N) could take note of was the fact that he had some burn like marks on his face, but he was using the glasses (and perhaps hood earlier) to hide the imperfections.

“That daemon nearly drained you of your blood in the process of poisoning you as well,” the assassin continued, walking over towards the bedside to sit back down upon the chair that was vacant there beside her. “You’ve been out cold for nearly a week now.”

(Y/N)’s inhale quivered once more as she kept her eyes on the man beside her now. “You…You didn’t kill me…?”

The man called Ignis fixed the glasses upon the slope of his nose before tending to the cloth he had in the bowl of water. “I would have killed you if you did far worse than what you have already, my dear, but to strike a target that is suffering and could very well be saved is not how I envision myself to be.”

“I’ve never known an assassin to spare a Templar…” (Y/N) muttered, flinching as she felt Ignis beginning to unwrap the wound the naga had given her days ago. She wished he wouldn’t touch it at all. It felt a lot less painful bound as it was and now he was loosening the bandages and about to expose it to air.

“Do not come to the realization you are free of your crimes,” Ignis scolded as his tone hardened at the trouble he had to go through to find her and fetch the information she stole. “I saved you, yes, but his Majesty of Lucis will see to your actual punishment when I am reunited with him.”

Her heart thumped in anxiety, eyes darting about in desperate thought for an exit strategy only to come up with none so far. “Then…why bother?”

Ignis sighed as if to ignore her question or perhaps not having a right answer for her as he finally unwrapped the blooded wound completely. “You are not a fighter, and I couldn’t help but pity you, if I am to be honest.” His head shifted to look at her, and in that moment she tried to see through the dark shades to peer into his eyes, but it was so difficult to see past the lenses to see how bad his own scars were. “Niflheim sent you practically to an early grave with a fool’s errand like that. Quite the poor planning on their part, or quite the heartless monster you have for a commander to order this of you knowing what you lack in fighting skills.”

“It was because I am the only one who has—! Sal!” It was then she began to panic, looking about for her computer only to have Ignis grab at her opposite shoulder to try and keep her firm.

“Be still,” he ordered as his fingertips continued to grace the stitching that had been done on her arm to be sure everything was in order as it was the hours earlier when he last redressed the injury. “Your device is just fine and charging in the outlet just over there.” He nodded to the space near the TV in the room where there was an extra socket for Sal.

(Y/N) sighed her relief, falling back against the wooden headrest of the bed she was resting within. “Thank the Astrals…”

“You have quite the connection to that computer,” pointed out the tactician, the damp cloth clearing away bits of stray and dried blood he was finding with his fingertips.

(Y/N)’s body tensed and her lips moved inward not sure if she should confirm or deny that with the position she was in now.

“I suppose the feeling is mutual to it as well, seeing as when it finally powered up completely, I tried to access its databanks only to have it call me a few foul things, but asking of you in the process.” Ignis shook his head at the memory of it, finally feeling that the blood was cleaned off of the wounded Templar. He removed the cloth he had used, now practically reddened by (Y/N)’s blood before his fingers fondled about the nightstand for an intricate bottle nearby that (Y/N) recognized as a hi-potion. “You’ll need to drink this to keep healthy and not succumb to the effects of the poison. I would have used an antidote days ago, but given our current location, none of the vendors seem to sell any here, so I was forced to get you to sustain on this only in your comatose state.”

She hesitated, wondering if it was a trap with all things considered. Her other arm moved to the best of its ability to take it from Ignis’ grasp and finding him more than willing to depart with it. “Th…Thank you…?” It did accidentally come out a question, but (Y/N) was still baffled in how to feel about the man she just stole from helping her.

“My pleasure,” Ignis responded back simply as if merely saying such a thing just because the act provoked the response. “There is a diner just outside to where we can eat, but given your current situation, I would advise you stay in bed a bit more. I can bring the food up here.”

“You would trust me alone up here?” (Y/N) tried not to laugh at the thought, but a small sarcastic huff departed from her lips. “I…I don’t…”

Ignis rose from the chair, outstretching his hand as if to silence her. “You are my prisoner as far as I am concerned, my dear—a prisoner I aim to keep healthy till King Noctis decides your fate.” He pointed to her as a warning. “You can see to it to run, but in your current position, not only would that be suicidal, but idiotic, as I would track you with ease and catch you just as well.” Ignis sighed through his nostrils, his fingers toying through his dusty blond hair as thoughts continued to feed upon him and make the situation difficult with how he vaguely felt already. He was about to depart with further words but decided not to, moving to the outlet where Sal was charging to unplug her.

(Y/N) panicked and thought for sure this Ignis was going to take off with her. Her sharp inhale and desire to move towards the device caused her pain, but it numbed at the very thought of losing Sal.

However, Ignis merely moved to her bedside, offering the computer over to (Y/N). “We have a long way to go till we’re back in Insomnia where I hope to reconvene with my group.” (Y/N) quickly snatched Sal, bringing her close to her chest like a mother welcoming back her child that Ignis heartlessly had kept from her. “If you want to walk freely back to your King and people, then I suggest you think wisely on what you wish to do with that information you’re harboring in there.”

“I cannot betray them,” (Y/N) said firmly, trying to show her courage (or lack there of). “If I do that, then—!”

“Risk severe punishment or death by their hands, or perhaps be shown mercy by King Noctis,” interrupted Ignis in hopes to discourage the former. He turned on his heels, heading for the door to retrieve the food he promised earlier. “These are, reluctantly, the only options in which I can give you.”

(Y/N) had no answer, lowering her head somberly as the door moaned on its hinges to indicate Ignis’ leave of the room. Flipping open the computer screen, (Y/N) tapped on the power button to see that Sal did indeed blip to life. “Sal! Thank goodness!”

“(Y/N)? I am relieved as well to hear you are alright,” responded the female robotic voice with what sigh it could muster with her limitations.

“What happened! You were offline when I woke up back there!” (Y/N) exclaimed in high yet hushed whispers.

Sal’s visual voice module flat lined for a time till it started to wave with her speech patterns. “You were asleep, or so I could assume with how quiet you were. I did not wish to wake you when you were already stressed prior from the King’s orders, and it would have been ill advised on my part to interrupt your rest.” She paused, changing her screen to a map of the area to locate the rest stop in which they were currently. “We weren’t far from here, so I was hoping to get the car to the parking lot by then, but fuel and my battery life depleted in unison.”

(Y/N) couldn’t say she recognized the area, but that was why she always relied on others to get her around Eos. If she could just stay locked in her home and do in city tasks, she would be much happier with that. Now she was forced out on the road in Lucis—a part of the world she was hardly familiar with minus a few outings with her past friends—and with this warrior who would see her in chains. “It’s not your fault,” she sighed, the poison still making her feel sick to her stomach.

“Judging by the stress in your voice now, however, seems you are in physical or emotional pain of some sort? What happened when I went offline? That Ignis Scientia was the last thing I recall beyond now, and he was not pleased with the idea I have his information on my hard drive.”

(Y/N) removed her hand from her head, which was warm to the touch, giving Sal a funny look. “He told you his full name?”

“Yes, and said it was his phone we hacked, and he wanted that information back, but a ‘please’ is hardly substantial enough of an offer for me to discharge such data willingly or even wipe it.” Sal changed her screen again to start running a profile on Ignis, bringing up his photograph of him looking much different and with glasses that had actual translucent lenses. “Here’s his general information I found when doing a deeper search in private.”

(Y/N) shifted forward, moving her hair from her face to read it hurriedly. “Ignis…male… 32 years of age… blah, blah, blah…” she muttered, eyes skimming quickly as she didn’t know when he’d be back. “What the fuck…” (Y/N) breathed as she saw his professions, struggling to even swallow as disbelief took hold. “…An assassin, advisor to the King Noctis who uses duel daggers and spears, and he’s a daemon slayer!” Her stress levels were about to rise further as she put her fingers through her hair acting as though she were going to tear a few strands, halting the desire to scream. “If he was just on the debate team this would be easier…!”

“Calm yourself, (Y/N),” Sal insisted, removing the information screen in haste as she too wasn’t sure when Ignis might reappear. “Just play along for now, and when the time is right, you can find a means to escape him like last time.”

(Y/N) didn’t voice her doubt in that thought, lips moving inward as she gazed out at the nearby window where precious light had filtered in. “Maybe.” It was all she could think to say at the moment as her mind became a polluted mess with doubts, fears, and other unpleasant ideas on how to escape.


	3. Chapter 3

Being infected with poison and only a meager hi-potion to combat the pains was hardly as effective as one would hope. Y/N let Sal stay powered down and silent for a period as she didn’t wish to drain her battery again, but in the process of Y/N’s body aching and tearing at her, she began to think on how to escape the predicament she was in. Ignis had yet to return and it felt like the medicine she took earlier did little to subdue the awful raking sensation that struck her in the arm and agitated her stomach in the process. Y/N curled over, nearly balling in pain on the bed’s covers with a groan rumbling in her throat. 

“By the gods…!” she gasped, falling to her side as she tried to find comfort in what chill there was on the messy hotel covers. “Is he just…doing this to torture me…?” Y/N would give anything at this point to apologize at least or beg for mercy if that were indeed true, but while this assassin was her jailer in a sense, Ignis didn’t exactly act as her executioner. 

He was an odd one just as he claimed she was in turn. 

Y/N’s eyes turned to the nearby balcony, noting that would be her only means of escape at the moment to try and at least get to salvation. While she trusted Ignis’ words prior, she didn’t want to be at the mercy of him or his king. 

Her fingers curled in agony upon the side of the bed as she used what strength she had to push Sal into her inner shirt pocket where Y/N knew she’d be safe before trying to pull herself out of bed and onto the floor. Y/N meant to stand on her feet at least but another painful spasm of the poison shot through her, causing the Niflheim Templar to lose her balance and fall forward to where she hit the ground rather harshly. 

Y/N hissed in pain through her teeth as the covers threatened to tangle about her and keep the woman from moving much further than where she had fallen. Opening her eyes to the room, nausea began to excite her weary form as she felt as though she were on a cruise ship that was rocking back and forth only rather violently than slowly. Regret was setting in, but regardless, Y/N dug her fingers into the carpeted floor and tried with all her might to pull herself free from the covers she had accidentally entangled herself in and did her best to get to the balcony. 

Never had it felt so far away to Y/N. Just moments ago it seemed as though it were closer than this, but upon each ragged movement, the balcony door seemed to go further beyond her reach. “I’ve got…to get…!” 

The sounds had gone so out of focus just like her sight that Y/N didn’t noticed Ignis had returned until his boots stepped into her view on either side of where she was crawling, his arms wasting no time in scooping her up into his embrace like some infant that had tried to escape their bed given how Y/N was partially placed over his right shoulder before Ignis got her back to the bed. 

“Already planning your ambitious escape, mmm?” Ignis asked, his words almost a mere hum to Y/N who was suffering horribly from the toxin. Placing her back within the security of the covers (that he fixed properly upon her given how tangled and messy they had become), he felt as her body tensed with a gasp of discontent escaping her lips from his former embrace to which prompted his brow to furrow at how aggressive this venom was. “Be still now,” he instructed, his hand digging into his inner coat pocket to pull out a new bottle of sorts that Y/N couldn’t quite put into focus. 

It felt as though her breathing was becoming more laborious than before, her eyes lidded as she grabbed at Ignis’ wrist pitifully. “Just…fucking… _kill_ me…” Death would be better at this point if she were to truly suffer as this for awhile yet. 

It was a plea of mercy, and Ignis heard it in her tone, and he felt it in her grasp to which his heart squeezed in agony at knowing Y/N was suffering so. “Perish the thought,” spoke the King of Lucis’ advisor, his accent purring the words by accident as he moved his gloved hand up to Y/N’s face to find her mouth with his inquisitive touch. His lips thinned, not sure if he should force it on her with how fearful he could feel his prisoner was. “I need you to drink this, Y/N. This will make the toxin subside.” 

His tone was calm but pregnant with urgency. Y/N was too much in pain and intimidated by this man hovering over her to understand why he was touching her in such an odd manner or catch onto the fact he said her name for the first time since they had their run in with one another. “Wh…Why…?” Y/N asked, not sure of what he was trying to force on her now. If anything, she tried to pull away from his touch (rather pathetically) only to have Ignis’ thumb find the outer area of her mouth once more. 

“I was able to find someone at the diner with this antidote and it will aid you, but you must be quick!” Ignis informed Y/N as he guided the rim of the bottle closer for her to take if she so desired. 

Y/N couldn’t handle the torment she was enduring anymore, and if it meant trusting this advisor to the King of Lucis, then she would do so blindly in the pits of Ifrit’s hellfire. With her lips upon the rim of the bottle, it was then she felt Ignis remove his hand from her mouth though work to cradling the back of her head as if to be certain she didn’t choke, cautiously tilting the flask so it would aid her as intended. 

It was like drinking water for the first time in ages. The liquid soothed the pains rupturing through Y/N as she finished off the antidote and collapsed with great relief there on the bed’s mattress, letting the pillow cradle her head when Ignis slowly removed his hand from where it was prior. He moved the bottle about ever so slightly to feel most of the liquid was gone. “How do you feel?” he asked, putting it off to the side for now in case the last bit still needed to aid the woman. 

Y/N breathed a shaky in and outward breath before finding it within her to look back at Ignis. She noticed in the darkness of his glasses that he was looking at her rather intently, but why he bothered to keep those things on all the time was still beyond her. “Just fine…” she insisted in a quiet gasp, closing her eyes once more to try and rest. “If you took those stupid sunglasses off…maybe you’d see better about where you’re putting your hand if you…have to feel around my face like that…” 

Ignis seemed to scoff to himself at the words. “Indeed…” His voice trailed off, shifting the glasses back up the slope of his nose as if not wishing for a truth to be uncovered then and there. “Did I touch you inappropriately somehow? Forgive me if that is the case.” 

Her eyes remained closed, breathing still steady as she let the relief wash over her. “You said my name,” Y/N murmured. 

The advisor straightened upright, lips slipping into a sort of neutral expression at the thought. “Your computer was asking for that name, so I was left to assume it belongs to you.” He turned away, allowing any to note his side profile that appeared less damaged than the other from some attack he endured sometime in his life. “I would have had you give me it of your own accord but the situation was too dire not to be direct and firm.” 

Y/N tried not to be the one to scoff now, her eyes opening to take in the sight of Ignis as he sat there on her bedside. “To be fair, Sal told me your name too amongst other things, so I know more about you than you realize.” She tried to keep the cheeky grin in tact, but Y/N already knew if this Ignis wanted her dead, he would have easily killed her by now. 

“Oh?” The dusty blond removed himself from the bed, allowing Y/N to watch as he drifted over to the opposite side of the room where a tray of food was left that Ignis had pushed in earlier. “And how much do you know I wonder?” 

Y/N remained relaxed, still letting her body find comfort in the aftermath of her previous torment. “Well, your name is Ignis Scientia, you’re male, obviously,… born February 7th, 32 years of age…You’re an assassin, advisor and part of the Crownsguard to the King Noctis who uses some spell daggers and spears, and you’re a daemon slayer to name a few things.” 

Ignis’ head turned ever so slightly as he pushed the cart closer to the bedside. “Your computer tell you this?” he asked, sounding not the least bit surprised but also smirking about something as if relieved not everything was said in truth of him. 

“She did.” Y/N looked to the cart to notice a few food items of interest on it and with her stomach rumbling something fierce she almost went right for it only to stop herself as she had to be reminded the man she was sharing a room with was practically her jailer. “A computer with infinite knowledge and a vast system to gather data needed, so I don’t know why you’d be surprised.” 

Ignis seemed to grin though kept it as dignified as possible. “I am not, Y/N. Given what I’ve _witnessed_ thus far, I do not doubt your superior talents when it comes to crafting such an interesting device.” He paused, tapping the rim of his glasses ever cautiously. “Mm, I still have my secrets, so I will find relief in that.” As he paused, he heard the faint rumbling of Y/N’s stomach to which he motioned to the food on the tray. “Go ahead. I could sense you were quite hungry earlier, and who wouldn’t be after being unconscious for several days?” 

Y/N made a funny look at the man before her sights shifted back to the tantalizing food in front of her that just urged her to take a bite out of it. She would eat anything at this point no matter how dreadful it could be or if it wasn’t a personal favorite. “Quite the interesting Lucian you are…” she muttered, taking to the toasty rice balls as it was the first thing close to her needy grasp. Y/N bit down and chewed greedily. “Never known anybody to keep a prisoner alive as this.” 

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Ignis scolded as though he had been used to delivering such verbal lashings before in his life. He had ventured to the opposite bed to sit down and give Y/N space feeling she wouldn’t take kindly to him hovering too much. His worries of her trying to escape (even when healed up a bit) were easily at a backseat as the assassin also knew what a dreadful fighter she was. “I’ve confessed my reasons, there is no reason to do so once more.” 

Y/N hadn’t taken note that the poison earlier had truly subsided by this time as she was too busy trying to eat to calm the hunger aches in her stomach. When he scolded her for talking with her mouth full all she could think was ‘ _fine, mom_ ’ in a disgruntled tone in her head. “So you’re still taking me in to your king then?” It was a stupid question but Ignis’ reaction to keeping her alive still made very little sense to Y/N. 

Ignis’ hands, folded properly upon his crossed legs, moved separate from one another for a brief moment before falling back into a relaxed grasp upon his knee as if to have that substitute for a shrug in the comment. “Remove the information you hold on that device of yours or you surrender your life to me and my king.” His lips thinned into a serious frown. “I gave you these fair options in this dangerous game you wish to play, Y/N. If you choose not to remove the data you stole from me from your device then you force my hand in the matter to taking you as my prisoner to King Noctis.” 

Y/N sighed, feeling her body threaten to reject the food at the mere thought of what this King of Lucis could do to her. Eyes looking down and away, she rolled her teeth over her lower lip in a nervous manner. “I already told you why I cannot do that…” 

“Then you force my hand,” spoke Ignis in a rather disappointed tone in the matter, his sight seemingly unwavering from where he spoke across the room. “When you’re feeling better, we must go onward to Insomnia where I hope to rejoin with my companions along the way. We were, regrettably, scattered no thanks in part to the attack on Lestallum and your thieving our vehicle and my information.” 

“And you’re going to leave me unbound regardless of me feeling better?” Y/N boldly asked wondering how Ignis truly hoped to move her to where his ruler would reside. 

“I have no means of which to bind you, Y/N,” said Ignis upfront, his thumbs pressing upon one another in some form of idle movement from where he sat. “Truthfully, I could find such a means, but I don’t think I need to resort to such a custom for one such as you.” He fixed the glasses on the slope of his nose before shrugging his brow. “If you prove to be a handful, then I guess I may have to.” 

“Well, I am a shitty warrior as you said earlier, so I guess you need not worry of that,” Y/N grumbled, hating to admit her short comings to someone superior to her in such a field. 

“Finished?” Ignis asked as he heard she had stopped tampering with the food on the cart. 

Y/N looked down at the food still remaining on the plates and hummed in thought. She could tell she was still hungry but the idea she was going to be persecuted either way if she couldn’t escape with what she had in Sal made her appetite less than cooperative. “Yeah, I guess,” Y/N murmured. 

Ignis tilted his head to the side as if to take in her actual response to which he didn’t move from where he sat. “I advise that you eat well for I am uncertain when we may be able to stop again. We are quite the ways from Insomnia, and without the Regalia, we will be relying on foot or chocobo.” 

“Sounds great,” Y/N groaned still uncertain of what she should take with her in terms of food. The idea death could be around the corner hardly made the meal further appetizing. 

Removing himself from where he sat, Ignis ventured closer to the bedside in which Y/N resided to touch upon the tray of food and lightly move the plates to feel what was left. “Didn’t eat much. Are you still ill?” 

Y/N’s mouth twisted to the side with a nasally sigh, rubbing her upper arms as if to calm the anxieties running through her. “No, I’m fine,” she lied while her mind raced wildly with the thought of what to do. Running her fingers through her hair till her palms landed down to the sides of her neck, she tried to do her best to relax but without the soothing computer voice of Sal at the very least talking to her, it was proving to be a challenge. 

“We’ll rest here for one more night,” spoke Ignis as he took to some of the food himself as he had to confess he too was a bit hungry. “If there’s anything you need before we depart, let me know, and I’ll see what I can do.” 

“An escape?” Y/N asked boldly but rather cheekily as well. 

“Funny,” Ignis said in a dry tone, finding no honest humor in the remark. “Again, need I remind you that I gave you options in this matter of walking free?” 

Y/N rolled her eyes, reclining back on the bed with a nod that she assumed the man could see. “I know…” 

“Rest up, Y/N,” insisted the advisor, turning from her to venture to the spot in the hotel room he had dubbed his place for the time being. “If I have to carry you out of here, I will do so of my own accord when the time comes. Spare us all the scene of embarrassment of such a thing by regaining your strength.” 

Rest hardly seemed doable, but Y/N rolled over onto her side (being sure her back was facing Ignis as a means of annoyed protest) and tried to find comfort in the small silence of the room that was only disturbed by a few coughs or clearing of Ignis’ throat here and there and his occasional eating. The minor bits of sound were oddly soothing and hardly threatening in the least as she expected his presence would be. She wasn’t sure when but eventually, Y/N had drifted off to sleep to rest up after losing weight in the period she was out cold as well as the blood loss from the naga attack days ago only to be awoken by the sound of quiet talking sometime later on—the sound of Ignis on his phone. 

“Are you alright?” Ignis’ voice asked in a hushed manner as if knowing Y/N was asleep and not wanting to wake her. “Yes…That so…?…Ah, I did find her, yes.” 

Y/N tried not to stir or make note that she was awake. Her eyes opened and remained fixated upon the wall not far away, listening to try and pick up what sounds she could. Sadly, the voice on the other line was so distant and quiet she couldn’t tell who was talking or what was truly being said beyond what Ignis responded to. 

“You’ve located the Regalia then? Excellent,” Ignis sighed in relief, the sound of the bed moaning underneath his weight as he moved ever so slightly on the mattress. 

Silence consumed the room once more as Ignis let the other on the phone speak. A meager hum of acknowledgement emanated from the man’s throat for a time. 

“Admittedly, Prompto, you’re closer to me than I am to Gladio or his Majesty…Do you know how they fair? I’ve not heard from either in a day or two… …. ….I see.” Ignis sighed in disappointment. “Do me a favor, Prompto, and head to Old Lestallum. It’ll be a few days before I can reach you, but at least I’ll have the Regalia and you at my side when it deals with the prisoner in question.” 

Y/N tried to keep her upset to herself. Her eyes shut tightly in horror at what was to wait her as she knew nothing of the other people in Ignis’ group. The one called Prompto she remembered back at Lestallum, and he seemed a bit kinder in regards to the care and keeping of her machine Sal than Ignis, but he still seemed fine with the idea of having her be killed, or so it seemed. 

“Mm, see to it then,” responded Ignis cryptically over the phone, breaking Y/N from her thoughts. “Be well, Prompto.” 

She wasn’t sure if the conversation was over or not for a minute there until she heard Ignis take to his feet and head closer to where she was resting. Her eyes noticed his shadow coming closer and his hand rising to where Y/N assumed the worst and acted on impulse. 

“ ** _Don’t!_** ” she shouted aggressively, grabbing at the covers of the bed and bringing them closer to herself before scooting away from Ignis’ approaching touch. 

Ignis’ gloved fingers recoiled and it was in that moment Y/N acknowledged he was wearing a different look than the assassin clothing beforehand. It was black attire but with a more royal symbol of sorts on parts of the clothing that was silver in coloration with several buttons parallel one another down the front. “I am not going to harm you, Y/N,” Ignis spoke calmly. “However, I need to look at your wound to change the bandage once more unless you wish for a worse infection than before.” 

“That _infection_ was a poisonous bite,” Y/N responded finding there to be no need for him to do such a thing right now. Her eyes narrowed, fingers clenching the covers ever more tightly than before as she wanted him to stay away if he wasn’t going to be anymore reasonable with the situation she was in. “You healed me thanks to that antidote, so I am just fine.” 

“Hardly,” said Ignis with an irritable sigh at Y/N’s behavior. “You were unconscious through the worst of it, but you broke out in a dreadful fever that left you drenched in a horrible sweat. I had to get the maids to change the sheets often to the point I just asked for extra linens.” 

Y/N huffed through her nostrils, backing away when Ignis got closer yet again. Seemed the advisor felt her curt attitude and retracted his hand slightly again only to inch it boldly closer to her arm once more. “I feel just fine—so does my injury,” she went onward to protest like a stubborn child. 

“Do not be absurd, Y/N,” spoke her jailer firmly, his brow creasing in anger at her obstinate behavior. “I merely wish to change your bandages and tend to your arm. If anybody in this scenario is making you suffer or putting you in harm’s way, it is yourself. You can hardly say I have not been kind or fair.” 

She sighed in agitation, not sure what had transpired when she was out cold, but she could only take his word that it wasn’t a delight. “Fine…” 

Ignis moved forward upon removing his black glove, his hand touching cautiously where he assumed her left arm would be in relation to where Y/N’s voice was coming from. Finding the bandages with ease, Ignis unwrapped them before cautiously drifting his fingertips over the stitched work he was responsible for. His brow wrinkled in thought as he felt the dried bits of blood toy with his senses. He raised a finger to Y/N as he turned another hand to the nearby nightstand where a bowl and rag were lying in wait. “Does it still hurt any?” 

“Well, yes, when you uncover it and the air is touching it,” Y/N hissed in displeasure as she didn’t even want to bother looking at the injury in question as it made her queasy. “Stings like a bitch…” 

Rolling the cloth into the bowl, Ignis dampened and then wrung the water from it before taking back to her injury once more. “This will sting a bit worse I am afraid,” he warned before touching the wet material to Y/N’s injury. 

A loud scream escaped Y/N without restraint. She wasn’t used to being in pain as this. The worst she ever had to deal with was a few bruises and scrapes back at home when being clumsy and either falling down or hurting herself with her equipment. Out of instinct, she tried to jerk away as well as push Ignis’ touch from the job at hand. “ ** _STOP!_** Stop it, **_please!_** ” 

Ignis wasn’t expecting the reaction and almost was easily tossed to the side. However, his grip tightened upon her arm while the one holding the cloth held fast midway through the push. “Do not squirm, Y/N,” sighed Ignis as he did indeed feel he was tending to a small child having never been around many who weren’t used to these sorts of injuries. “The more you do, the worse it’ll be.” 

“Any tips for dealing with this sort of crap?” Y/N asked frantically as she saw Ignis about to tend to the dried blood around the injury once more, causing her to pull against him out of instinct. She felt as he retaliated in his own manner and kept a firm grip on her to prevent her from weaseling away. 

“Bite down on something, and don’t grind your teeth together regardless of the pain.” Ignis sighed as he felt Y/N pull away again with a small whine. “Bloody hell, stop writhing! You keep on like this and you’re going to open the wound again!” Feeling it to be impossible to get the notion through to her, Ignis almost seemed to give up as he released her arm and stood to attention with his lower lip moved inward like a mother about to scold her impossible child. Sighing out the frustration, his body relaxed and Ignis shifted his glasses once more upon the slope of his nose before fishing for a handkerchief he seemed to keep embedded in one of his pockets. He moved it closer to Y/N. “Bite down on this, and do not move.” 

Y/N thought he was kidding but given the pain she was already in she willingly took the embroidered piece of fabric he offered her to do as he asked. Upon the next wave of tenderness that ruptured through her wound being tended to, she bit down hard and muffled her scream as Ignis took care of the blood surrounding the spot the daemon tore into, the medicine in the water tending to her injury. It was an agonizing minute that felt longer than that, but eventually Y/N found relief in Ignis re-bandaging the stitched skin and letting her be at peace. 

He opened his hand, moving his fingers to signal he wanted the handkerchief back. Feeling it back into his grasp, Ignis tucked it back where it belonged making a mental note to clean it later. “There now,” he breathed out in relief it went well enough though a smirk clung to his lips. “Not so bad, was it?” 

Y/N grumbled at the advisor, catching onto his tone. “Don’t patronize me…” She was mindful of her arm, finding it still to be tender as she moved it about. “I’ve never been on the battlefield before, and you know this, so this sort of stuff is new to me!” 

“Duly noted,” spoke Ignis, turning around on his heels after sliding his glove back into place. “Forgive me for waking you, Y/N, but I couldn’t go another hour or so with your wound unchecked.” He took back to his side of the room, retrieving his phone once more and putting in an earbud to listen to something in private while the other ear remained unbothered to keep in tune with the sounds in the room. Legs crossed and head lowered somewhat, it seemed he was staring right at her while listening to whatever it was that he had his partial focus on within his phone. “You best continue to rest, Y/N. We have an early start tomorrow if I’m to reconvene with part of my group in Old Lestallum. I aim to leave here about seven in the morning.” 

“Why so early?” Y/N asked with a laborious sigh, reclining back on the bed regardless as the loss in blood and minimal food made her tired. 

“We’ll cover more ground that way with the sun up and at our side,” explained the advisor simply, pushing the earbud in a bit more as if trying to block her out for a second to hear something important. “Rest now. You’ve hardly the strength as is to even pull yourself from bed, I am sure.” 

Y/N turned her back towards him once more with a disgruntled moan. “If you don’t mind dragging me all about Eos, then fine.” 

She meant more for the words to be for her, but it seemed Ignis heard her. “I did already, partially anyways,” he responded with a bit of a quip to his tone. “As I said before: if I have to carry you out of here, then I shall.” He paused, wondering if Y/N would respond. When she didn’t, he continued, “I’ll wake you up in a few hours to eat once more.” 

 _I am stuck in his grasp_ , Y/N thought to herself as terror and disbelief ran up and down her spine, sending chills through her. _By the gods, how am I going to get away from him? It’s like he knows my own moves before I even make them!_


	4. Chapter 4

The cool grace of the morning air was hardly welcoming for Y/N and her distaste for early rises. However, at Ignis’ command, she set to her feet (after he created a makeshift sling for her arm) and ventured out on foot with him at her side. Anytime she thought to stop and try to check in on Sal, Ignis urged her onward with a stern yet gentle push. 

“Onward,” Ignis ordered to his captive though trying to make sure the tone appeared more a higher authority to a subordinate when passing through the eyes of onlookers he could feel upon him, ushering Y/N about the road that was to last them quite awhile. 

Y/N groaned as she let Ignis keep his firm grip upon her other arm to escort her and be certain she didn’t try anything with the condition and trouble she was in. “How far away is this Old Lestallum?” Y/N probed, trying not to drag her feet though finding it a challenge as she had to inwardly admit she didn’t wish to be moved or jerked about by this Ignis. 

“Depends the ground we tread, Y/N,” sighed Ignis as he too was trying not to accidentally drag his captive across Eos even if he joked he would if need be. “On foot, it can take us up to a week or so at most, but if the funds are secured, we can get there in at least three days by chocobo.” 

“A week!” Y/N gasped already feeling her legs wanting to turn of jelly. She tried to intentionally stop Ignis by heeling the dirt road before them only to have Ignis prove he was far stronger than she, causing Y/N to nearly stumble forward. 

“Y/N, keep up!” Ignis scolded as he felt her run into his side after acting the ever stubborn mule by refusing to move a moment ago. “If you keep on as this impracticable **_child_** it will be far longer than a mere week till we arrive, and no amount of stalling is going to prevent you from your punishment!” 

Y/N puffed her cheeks, pulling her well arm from the hunter assassin and advisor to the King with such unexpected force that she was allowed to wiggle free of Ignis’ grasp. “I am not intentionally stalling, **_four-eyes_**!” Y/N watched as Ignis halted, turning to her quickly as if to hide something she might see given the angle she stood in relation to him. “You would expect us to walk first when we can rent a damn chocobo just over there?” Y/N gestured wildly to the renting machine for such an occasion that she was being pulled ever so further from by Ignis’ demand. 

His sigh could be heard and seen upon the cool air in a crystalline vapor as he huffed through his teeth. “You are not well enough to ride on a creature as that, Y/N. The movement of it alone would have you thrown from its back as you could only ride with one good arm as it is. The motion could upset your otherwise weakened stomach from the venom, which is still in passing through you, and let’s not forget the fact you’ve only consumed a pitiful amount of food from being without nutrition in the past several days. Your condition is on the mend, but I would rather not chance things for the sake of a speedier arrival.” Ignis moved closer to Y/N’s face, his breath warm across her features as he spoke with great irritation. “So pardon me for thinking more of your wellbeing than the time we have at our disposal.” 

Y/N looked away quickly though trying to act in disgust when Ignis expressed concern that hardly anybody ever showed her—everybody but Sal and her friend she once had back in Niflheim. “You could just rent one, and we can share the stupid thing,” she huffed in return. 

“Again, your _condition_ , Y/N,” spoke Ignis firmly once more as he took to the bend in her arm upon finding it with his gloved hand and urging her further down the road ahead. “Having me take to the bloody reins would do little good in you heaving from the bounding motion. Last thing I need is a bird to clean and you with little remaining food in your stomach.” 

“Why don’t you just ask the guy to bring that car here?” Y/N went onward to complain, doing everything in her might to keep up with Ignis as he was a far speedier walker than herself. 

“Because the last time we entrusted him to drive the Regalia, Prompto crashed it not but a few minutes from Insomnia,” answered Ignis in honesty. “And that was with four of us in the car. We were thankful the damages weren’t immense, but if it were just him alone behind the wheel…I shudder to think what will become of the car.” 

Y/N couldn’t help but throw her head back and laugh at the idea the other guy was such a terrible driver. “That’s so fucked that my own computer can drive better than he can,” she joked lightly, oddly tickled by the honesty Ignis spared. 

“So it was your computer that took to driving the Regalia?” Ignis inquired curiously with a raise of his brow. 

“Yeah, she’s pretty han—will you slow down!” Y/N exclaimed, interrupting her own sentence as she nearly fell over herself again at Ignis rushing on ahead. “You talk of my wellbeing yet you are literally seconds from urging me to land flat on my face and just dragging me like a ragdoll!” 

Ignis halted, turning once more to acknowledge Y/N’s words. “Do you wish to be far from a campsite or civilization and surrounded by daemons?” 

Y/N shook her head, but it seemed that wasn’t enough for him. 

“Do you?” Ignis asked once more as he couldn’t exactly feel the head shake. 

“N-No,” Y/N finally responded, not sure why her head shake wasn’t enough for him. 

“Then I suggest you keep up, Y/N,” ordered the advisor yet again as he fixed his cuffs just a bit out of irritation. “If you need a moment to catch your breath then, by all means, inform me.” 

Once more, Ignis turned on his heels and hurried onward much to Y/N’s dismay. As she was being ushered further from the hotel they had found solitude in, she began to realize that depending the outcome of her journey, this may very well be the last time she got to see any of it again—the wilds, the people, hear the sounds and enjoy the smells of the air or even get to taste whatever food may grace her lips. She could be killed by her superiors if set free by the King of Lucis or locked up for years of her life for her crimes in Insomnia… 

Even as Y/N was hurried along, her eyes frantically began to drink it all in as well as do everything she could to try and formulate an escape plan. 

 

 

Ignis wasn’t joking when he warned her that her body was still mending and could easily be upset by the slightest of movements. Y/N wanted to prove him wrong, so she did everything in her power to continue down the path before them regardless of the upset that was churning in her stomach. 

“What’s wrong?” Ignis eventually asked much to her surprise, halting in his steps when he could sense her breathing sounded heavy and fixated. 

Y/N felt his touch loosen on the bend in her arm, allowing her to find rest on her own upon a nearby rock formation as her stomach growled audibly in discomfort. She swallowed, trying to keep the food she consumed earlier down though it was proving a challenge. “It’s nothing…I…I’m fine,” Y/N lied pathetically, her laborious words all the more evident to the assassin something was wrong. 

Ignis paid mind to the sound of the dry leaves and old twigs crunching under her feet, moving to where Y/N was sitting upon the nearby bedrock with his hand finding her shoulder with ease. “Feeling unwell?” 

Even if he was trying to be caring, Y/N couldn’t help but frown wishing he’d piss off to put lightly. “I told you, I’m fine!” she shouted a bit more firmly than before. However, seemed just doing that was enough to upset her disposition even more and as Y/N felt the small amount of breakfast threatening to come upward, she pushed Ignis away to be sure she wouldn’t vomit on him. 

Feeling her weary shove Ignis complied by merely stepping backward and just in time for the moment as he heard Y/N heave and gag in a rather uncomfortable manner. “Y/N…!” he gasped, his gloved hands going for her hair to be certain it remained out of her way from the violent act that rocked her wounded body. “Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t feeling well?” Ignis asked with a heavy exhale at her obstinate behavior. “Do you not realize by pushing yourself as this and urging me away in my wish to aid you that you are deliberately harming yourself?” Digging back into his pocket, he pulled back out the handkerchief he washed back at the hotel to offer to Y/N if she wanted it. 

Y/N felt the world was spinning for a fair moment as she grabbed weakly onto Ignis’ hand to take the offered material to embarrassingly wipe her mouth. As she attempted to make away with it, however, the advisor grabbed at her wrist in a scolding manner, his other hand shaking his index finger at her like a cross parent to their child. 

“You will be the cause of your own death, Y/N, if you keep this foul behavior up.” 

“All I did was throw up; by the Astrals, calm the fuck down,” Y/N grumped as she yanked the handkerchief greedily from Ignis to do away with the remnants of her breakfast on her face. 

Ignis frowned at her actions and the venomous way of her words. “Need I remind you, Y/N, that what little bit of food you have in your body is best kept there to invigorate you? You continue as this and there will be nary a piece left in you, and soon you’ll have no energy of which to even stand.” He moved his lips inward, wondering if he should be so blunt. “Your body will in time resort to eating itself should you be this incautious.” 

Y/N went quiet, unsure of what to even say at the given moment as she felt too weak to even move. As lumpy and unforgiving as the rock formation was she found some bit of odd comfort just resting there given how fatigued she had become. 

When she didn’t respond, Ignis straightened up and retracted his aggressive tone by a fraction or so. “Did you get it on your clothes?” 

“A bit,” she mumbled as her cheek found the soothing chill of the rock to relax her a bit and make her feel as though she were on a tile floor given the minuscule amount of an even surface her cheek resided upon. “Only a small bit, but these are the only clothes I have so…” Y/N shrugged thinking he could bear witness to the act as her eyes shut to relax after the draining event. 

“I will need to wash them, and you will need to wash yourself,” Ignis sighed hearing the drained tone Y/N was giving off. “I won’t have you walking about a mess as—.” His tone stopped abruptly and Y/N witnessed as he looked off to the right as if something caught his attention. 

Y/N slowly raised her head and looked in the direction he was gazing. “What? What is it?” she asked as he seemed to be on alert with something in the bushes not far away that the unsuspecting Templar couldn’t see or hear. 

The assassin hunter stood to attention and stepped in front of where Y/N lay, summoning his daggers in hand. “Quiet,” Ignis ordered as his head dipped ever slightly to take in the surrounding sounds to locate the enemy target he could sense ahead in the brush. His brow furrowed and the resonating aggression of what sounded like an oncoming pack of sabertusks became ever louder in time. His fingers curled firmly upon the hilts of his weapons, readying himself. “Do you know at all how to fight, Y/N?” 

“Wh-I…No…!” Y/N stammered, wondering what he was getting at only to hear the snarls now followed by the anxious noise of crunching leaves and twigs as one was heading right for them. Seeing the sudden up rise of daemons made Y/N cover her head with her one good arm and she shrieked. “Protect me! I can’t move!” 

It was horrifying. The gaping maw of the dog like beast with teeth sharper than any weapon Y/N had laid eyes on came right for her in a split second, but in that horrifying moment that almost rekindled her nausea, Ignis’ dagger dove downward into the back of its neck, pinning the beast and ending its life in that single, unforgiving act. 

The sabertusk let out a horrific dog like whine as it soon lay dead, bleeding out from the mortal wound Ignis imposed upon it with his elemental dagger. Y/N shivered and her teeth chattered in horror as she never was one to witness such strengths on the battlefield—merely heard tales of them back home from active Templars and warriors that were on the field. Her fingers, as weak as they were in their submissive act, hardly had the strength to grip the rock she remained on and her body heaved in upset at the ghastly sight but nothing came up. 

“Hold still!” Ignis demanded, throwing another dagger to land a perfect shot within the next oncoming attacking sabertusk that fell to defeat next to the other, the weapon having landed perfectly in his right eye to blind it before the other found its heart when Ignis swung down and just underneath its frantically clawing front legs with the other attack. “I can handle these wretched creatures just fine!” he insisted, taking back to the elemental blade, jerking it harshly from the eye wound that was given to the previously fallen sabertusk and using a flurry of fire attacks with his daggers to assault the sudden rush of daemons that parted from the bushes ahead to try and avenge their comrades. 

The sights, the sounds…it was all so new and horrendous to Y/N. Her body coiled upon the rocks she had found comfort upon, watching as Ignis lay to waste the daemons that tried with all their might to sink their teeth into her as they could tell she was the weakest. When the last of them fell before her, Y/N’s eyes—widened in disbelief he was truly that strong—turned to gaze upward at the advisor who dismissed his weapons and merely pushed his glasses up the slope of his nose as though what he had done was nothing to be concerned over. 

 _At any moment he could end me_ , Y/N thought to herself not even realizing Ignis was turning to her once more and offering his hand for her to take. 

“Y/N,” Ignis beckoned urgently, bringing her back to herself in a quick moment. “We have to keep moving; else, more could come.” 

Y/N’s lower lip quivered in a desire to speak but nothing came out right away as she took to his offer and steadily rose to her feet regardless of how unsteady her foundation felt. “You…your accuracy was…insane…!” 

Hearing her give him such winded praise made Ignis take note of a mixture of praise and horror, prompting his look to remain neutral. “Perhaps you would find that more enthralling if you knew the whole truth,” he commented, moving his glasses yet again as if to mutely hint at something. “The heartbeat of a wild animal is easy to detect. I know just where to hit them and where they are coming from when they are that riled and ready.” 

Y/N thought he was joking. How could someone’s hearing be so acute they could hear something’s heartbeat? She didn’t question it at the moment, too frightened and inwardly frozen trying to take in what she just witnessed as Ignis hurried her along and away from the dead sabertusk bodies. 

 

 

 

As night fell around them a secured campsite was located within time much to Y/N’s and Ignis’ relief. They had managed to pass by a bit of civilization in their travels to where Ignis bought a few necessary things for camping as he knew the stuff he usually traveled with belonged to Gladiolus and that remained in the car that Prompto had in his possession in Old Lestallum. 

Y/N remained near the fire that Ignis had gotten together for the evening to aid in keeping the daemons at bay that she could hear off in the echoing distant of the dark. As Ignis took to cooking dinner for the evening, she said not a word with her legs inward and her mind a mess still replaying the traumatic events that Ignis bequeathed her in saving her life. 

 _What am I going to do?_ she thought, watching as the raging ember before her flickered and danced at the sensual touch of the evening breeze. _Betray the Empire, and I will for sure be doomed…Try to retreat and this murder house is going to kill me._ Just thinking of Ignis, Y/N’s eyes turned to him, his back facing her she watched as he went about the task at hand finishing the dinner for the evening. _And who knows how kind this Noctis is going to be when he finds out what I tried to do._  

When it came down to it, Y/N realized she knew absolutely nothing about Noctis other than he was a pain in the Empire’s side—a thorn they wanted to remove so they could dominate Lucis. 

In the silence of the night, Y/N tried to find comfort in her few options but none brought her such relief. Bringing her knees closer to her chest, she embraced her legs and sat there with uncertainty about to overwhelm her to the point of tears. _Death_ was a word that kept repeating again and again in her mind and while a small fragment of her would have welcomed it with all things considered in her life, Y/N nearly escaped the maws of such a twisted fate before, and the path to such damnation was painful and not one she wanted to retread out of fear. 

“You’ve been quiet for sometime now, Y/N,” commented Ignis, breaking the silence that was only whisked away by the crackling of the fire. “Are you alright?” He turned, bringing a plate of food towards her that held merely rice and a few cooked vegetables he encountered on their traveling. When Y/N didn’t take to the plate right away, Ignis responded, “It is all I have to work with for now, so I hope it suffices.” 

“It-It’s fine— ** _I’m_** fine,” Y/N stuttered as she took the food but lacked much of a desire to eat when she felt her life and freedom on Eos was limited. Taking to the fork, she pushed the rice about with a heavy sigh, turning to the chocobo Ignis did rent but only for the sake of keeping their gear in place and off of both of their hands. Seemed the creature was sleeping contently after its fill of greens earlier Ignis offered it and Y/N could only swallow her envy at the peaceful life the creature seemed to live. 

“Don’t force yourself to eat, Y/N,” Ignis instructed as he took his seat beside her, tending to his own plate. “If you’re unwell still, it is best to be mindful and take it slowly.” 

“Thanks,” Y/N muttered, voice still dry and heavy with regret. As she moved, she felt Sal in her pocket, making her wish she could find a moment to separate from Ignis just to talk to her in private. Out of everybody in the room currently, she was her only friend. However, with very few moments Ignis was giving her to sit and charge her, Y/N had to use Sal sparingly. 

“You need to change out of your clothes so I can tend to them,” Ignis reminded Y/N after taking a bite of his food to find satisfaction in what he had managed to make with so little at his disposal. 

Y/N’s cheeks blushed, jerking back at Ignis’ forward remark. “B-But I told you…this is all I have to wear! What exactly do you plan on me wearing as you wash them?” 

Putting his food down on his chair for a moment, Ignis moved to his feet and then began to rummage through his bag he had stuffed some of his own clothing in for the sake of the trip within the tent. Pulling a black undershirt from the bag, Ignis showed it to Y/N in the firelight. “Will this substitute for a nightgown for you? I don’t think my pants will fit you as I could tell you wear a size far different than myself.” 

“Well…” Y/N paused, tilting her head to the side to get a general idea of how big it would be on her in comparison to him. “…you are a tall and big dude, so I guess so.” 

“It is settled then,” said the advisor as he moved towards Y/N to offer the shirt to her. “After you eat, go and wash up. I know there was a body of water somewhere not far from here.” 

“A-Alone? O-Out there where all the daemons are…?” Y/N asked nervously. While it would be a nice chance to be alone and consult with Sal, she wasn’t too keen on the idea of daemons being about. “Need I remind you: the last time I tried to head for water a giant naga bit the shit out of me.” 

“Well, I can watch you if you find that more preferable,” Ignis said rather simply as though it wouldn’t be a problem for him. Y/N’s eye twitched and she felt her heart beat rapidly in her chest. Before she could even respond to him being a pervert, Ignis turned to her. “Fluster you, did I?” 

“Yeah, no shit!” Y/N commented not realizing he was probably hearing her risen heartbeat regarding his comment earlier about his sensitive hearing. “I would rather a naga bite me then you stand on the shoreline and watch me naked, you pervert!” 

“Perhaps I should rephrase,” commented Ignis as his chuckle was hidden behind the mask of business to the best of his ability though the flickering light of the fire caught his minor grin, finding odd humor in her being annoyed with and or at him for a minor slip of the tongue. “I merely meant that I would gladly watch the surrounding area while you bathed, Y/N—nothing perverse was in my intentions.” 

Y/N looked away, allowing her heart to settle in her chest as she finished what bit of the meal she could manage. “How close or… ** _far_** will you be?” 

Ignis finished chewing the last of his dinner as well before answering her. “Close enough to act within reason should you try anything or there is danger within the area and far enough to give you privacy, Y/N. I will be at the far end of the riverbed to wash your clothes regardless, so I will be alert for us both.” 

“Not like I have much of a choice in the matter anyways,” Y/N grumbled as she put aside the rest of her meal she couldn’t stomach. 

“To be frank: no, you don’t,” responded the hunter assassin as he shifted to his feet and offered his hand for hers. “I am not going to have you resting with vomit on you or your clothes.” 

“How charming of you,” Y/N grouched again before accepting his offer only to be escorted away from the campsite to the body of water Ignis had heard and smelt earlier in their travels through the area. 

When the water came within view, Y/N cringed as she wasn’t sure how well this was going to play out for her. Bathing at home was far more hygienic and alluring than her options. “Get undressed,” ordered Ignis as the lantern shifted in his hand idly. 

Y/N blushed once more, turning to him with a disgusted expression. “Care to turn away at least?” 

“Oh, right. My apologies,” said Ignis as if forgetting something Y/N wasn’t aware of. Turning around in the thick of night, he listened as she began to undress with his back to her. When he figured he heard the last of it, Ignis outstretched his hand with the lantern hanging on the tip of his index finger. “You’ll need this to keep the daemons at bay as any amount of light will do in these cases.” 

“What about you?” Y/N asked as she quickly grabbed for it so she could keep her good arm across her chest to preserve her decency, legs slightly crossed as well in the chill of the night. When discarding her clothing, however, she was sure to grab Sal in the process knowing she wouldn’t be able to make do in the water anyways. “Don’t you need light to see what you’re doing with my clothes or do you just always work in the dark as most assassins?” 

Ignis seemed to scoff bitterly at her words. “You would be surprised, Y/N.” And with that vague remark, he set off ahead though keeping his head bowed and to the side to continue to be respectful to her as he did so. 

Y/N didn’t question it at the moment, just thinking him odd. Bringing the light source and Sal to the edge of the water, she dipped her toes in first before cringing at how cold it felt to the touch. “Just suck it up, Y/N,” she urged, finding it within herself to slowly guide her legs in first before the rest of her followed, glad to know the river was only chest deep. Submerging herself quickly, Y/N shook her head with a loud gasp as she quivered and chattered her teeth when breaking the surface seconds later. “It’s so d-damn cold! Wh-Why did he think this was an excellent idea…!” 

As quickly as she could, Y/N washed away the grime of the day and the accident from prior before scurrying out onto the shoreline, grabbing up the towel Ignis had given her as well for drying off. Wrapping herself in it for the time being, she grabbed Sal when her hands were completely dried, booting her up to at least talk to her for a moment. 

“Y/N?” Sal’s robotic voice questioned as the screen beamed with life. 

“Yeah, it’s me,” she responded in a hushed whisper, “but keep your voice down. Ignis isn’t that far away, and I am sure he’ll eavesdrop if he notices what I am doing.” 

Sal lowered her voice audio at Y/N’s command. “What’s going on? You’ve been quiet in the past several hours.” 

Y/N knew her computer was calculating cautiously the time in which Y/N was around to actively turn her on and talk through Sal’s own built in time and calendar records. “We’ve been traveling by foot, and I haven’t had a chance to really sit at a hotel yet. I might not for a time yet…I honestly think this Ignis just wants me to use you as little as possible for who the fuck knows why.” Y/N turned instinctively at his name to make sure he was still busy down the way tending to her clothing and not taking note of her. “I guess he’s worried I might contact the Empire and bring them here.” 

Sal’s voice module wavered. “How fairs your escape plan, Y/N?” 

“What escape plan, Sal!” Y/N exclaimed in a quiet whisper, fixing the towel upon her chest as she felt it slipping a bit. “This guy is…” The images from earlier began to pound violently in the back of her head, making Y/N shudder in fright though the chill in the air did little to keep her from doing so regardless. “…he’s just a killing machine of accuracy with those daggers of his! If I tried to run, I am sure he could throw a dagger in my back with such force and precision he could murder me in that one hit!” 

Sal hadn’t been online long enough to truly get a good sense of Ignis and his intentions, so she had little to add in regards of Y/N’s fears of him. Her screen blipped to a map, pinpointing their location to be certain of what to say in regards to Y/N’s surroundings. “Hmm…you are camping, I take it? I note there’s a campsite on my map here and judging by my inner regulator, it is quite late.” 

“Yeah, much to my dismay,” Y/N sighed, moving a stray, wet strand of her hair from her face. 

“Sharing a tent?” Sal questioned onward. 

“Yes.” 

“Well then,” began Sal, the green line dictating the pitch of her voice moving at her words, “why not take advantage while he’s sleeping?” 

“What?” Y/N asked in disbelief. “S-Sal, your logic chip must be malfunctioning! I cannot even try to escape him in a crowd of people in a damn store without him knowing I am doing so!” She thought back to their buying of the camping equipment and grumbled. “Believe me, I’ve tried…” 

“It is your most viable option, Y/N,” responded Sal urgently, fearing for her owner’s life. “The only other thing I can suggest is winning his favor to where he’s so emotionally weak he’ll trust you more and be less alert about your presence.” 

Y/N sighed, turning to look down where Ignis was only to panic as she realized he was heading in her direction once more. “I gotta go! I’ll talk to you later, but he’s coming,” she whispered in a panic, shutting down Sal before she had a moment to respond back. 

“Finished, are we?” Ignis asked, sounding a bit disgruntled about something though Y/N could only assume it was because he no doubt saw she was on Sal. 

“Y-Yeah,” Y/N responded, taking to her feet while making sure the towel was secure. “I just wanted to be sure Sal was doing alright since I’ve not had a moment to really turn her on lately.” It wasn’t a completely false statement in truth. 

Ignis’ frown loosened from what Y/N could make out in the light of the lantern, catching something in her tone that she herself seemed to even miss masking. “I see,” he responded simply. “It is wise we get you back to the camp or the cold water will do more harm than good.” 

“Why did you think that was a good idea anyway?” Y/N asked as she let him escort her back once more like she was indeed his prisoner with his hand gripping the bend in her arm. “I could catch pneumonia, you know?” 

“A cold wash is better than the alternative. You gain more benefits than taking a warm one,” explained Ignis on their way back to the campfire. “Once you’re back at the fire you can dry properly and change into my shirt and tell me how it feels.” 

When the two of them were prepared for the evening, Y/N kept to Ignis’ shirt as a means for a nightgown as he offered, finding it did indeed go to her knees nearly and even the sleeves swallowed her hands completely. Ignis seemed to easily fall asleep but Y/N never slept in the wilds before and found it difficult to do so without someone to at least keep her company—someone she trusted, anyways. 

As she remained awake, gazing at the ceiling of the tent all she could do was replay what Sal had suggested alongside the fear that bubbled in her stomach. Horrific images of what Ignis could very well do to her and the Empire began to make her queasy and Y/N found herself sitting upright, scooting off to the side of the tent in distress with her knees again to her chest; the one good arm wrapped about them to bring it closer as she had nobody to embrace in such a trying time. 

 _Take advantage of him…? While he’s asleep…?_ Y/N remembered her knife she usually kept with her just in case of needing to defend herself. Her eyes drifted in the dark to the weapon Ignis had allowed her to keep on her person (probably finding her a low to minimal threat even with it). Throat dry at the idea that was bubbling up in her every bone and aching muscle, Y/N crawled over towards her clothing quietly and with what minimal efforts possible she could afford to use, pulled it slowly from the sheath. 

Ignis didn’t stir at all. His breathing remained the same for a time though Y/N swore she heard it pause as if aware of her, but it could have been her imagination. Clutching the weapon in her hand, she slowly and with severe doubt in her abilities raised it above her head with one, trembling hand—threatening to come down on Ignis’ neck at least as his back was facing her. 

 _I’ve got to do this…I’ve **got** to. It’s either him or me_ , Y/N recited as a comfort to herself. Just as she thought she found the courage, she heard Ignis moan to himself and turn over, prompting Y/N to quickly hide the dagger behind her back and act as though nothing were occurring…Much to her relief, Ignis was merely turning in his sleep. 

It was then she got a decent look at his face without his dark glasses on to take note of the scars that had taken hold of his features in the darkness of the tent that only allowed her adjusting vision to get a minor peek at the damages some fight had left upon him. She had no idea what could have caused such harm to his body, but it looked as though it had to have been painful as the scars looked of burn marks given the parts of removed flesh on him. For someone who had been so battle worn it was hard to believe he could have his kinder and attentive moments that not even her superiors showed her. 

Biting at her lower lip to try and regain her composure, Y/N raised the dagger slowly once more with both hands (regardless of the ache in her wounded one) above her head. Lower lip quivering as she stared at Ignis long and hard, Y/N felt the flush of emotions at his odd kindness cripple her to silent tears. There were so many times Ignis could have killed her. He could have crushed Sal and left her for dead after the naga attack, but he instead chose to save her out of pity. When she was suffering from the venom, Ignis could have let her remain in such an unpleasant state till she surrendered herself and device willingly to the Lucian King and people. He had every chance imaginable to make her life a living hell given their opposite views in this war and what she had done to his King, but he didn’t. 

Y/N’s body quivered as did her rasping breath when she inhaled, tears flowing freely from her shut eyes—her hands falling to the top of her head in defeat. _I…Can’t…_ Quietly, she moved the knife down and off to the side with a shake of her head. _He’s a pain in the ass, and I hate he’s doing this to me, but there were worse things he could have done already, but he hasn’t…_ Moving back to the corner she was in earlier, Y/N quietly cried to herself. _You bastard…Why did you have to make this a challenge for me when I know I am going to die no matter the outcome of this?_


	5. Chapter 5

It was simpler, happier times in her dreams when Y/N managed to cry herself to sleep that evening. Back in Niflheim when she was younger, she remembered the more pleasant times she and her old friend used to have together. The memory was old and almost over shined by the light surrounding the atmosphere her mind tried to recreate. However, Y/N could remember her friend’s long, wavy red hair that burned like the brightest ember when the light graced it, her blue eyes giving the morning sky something to be envious over and a laugh so harmonious it was something that Y/N could still remember after all this time. 

Her energy was infectious and even seeing her there at the windows of Y/N’s old apartment, Y/N felt reinvigorated as she felt the dream was real. The light haloed her friend’s form to an immense degree, but it soon began to subside ever slightly as the redhead moved closer to where Y/N could view her. 

“Y/N,” she spoke sweetly, hands on her hips as she shook her head at the fact Y/N was probably still sleeping. “Seriously? Still in bed?” Her blue eyes rolled playfully as she moved onto the bed Y/N thought for sure she was on given the movement and weight of the dreamt mattress she was upon when her friend crawled upon it. “You keep on like that and we’ll just have to stay in bed all day.” 

“And that’s a problem?” Y/N remembered asking that early afternoon. “I feel safer here than out there.” 

“The world doesn’t exactly stop for you, Y/N, so why waste it looking at the same four walls every day and night?” spoke the vision of her friend. “Sometimes you have to show courage and go grab life by the horns! Take each day one step at a time, ya know? Being here all the time isn’t healthy, Y/N.” When she witnessed Y/N conceal herself with the covers, a playful sigh could be heard as Y/N’s friend’s fingers dove into her ticklish areas to get her to squirm and listen to her. “Or I can just drag your ass out there myself!” 

Y/N squirmed indeed and laughed while trying to beg her friend to stop what she was doing, throwing the covers off of her body before wiggling her way to freedom and the floor ultimately (though in a rather clumsy manner as Y/N remembered being desperate to escape). “Alright, alright! J-Just stop! Please!” Y/N begged though still laughing from the aftermath of the situation, tangled up in the covers as she lay off the side of the bed with her head and upper back on the floor mainly. 

The memories became a blur in the moment as Y/N remembered her friend insisting they follow the Order of the Templars, images violently flashing in her dream from one thing to the next as the two climbed the ladder to such success. While her childhood friend had more knowledge with fighting, Y/N had the better with technology and merely relied on her machines to do the job in keeping her safe and satisfying the Empire when under the Templar Order. She secured and stole information on their behalf, hardly having to even leave her base of operation at home unless it was in enemy territory far too secure that needed a more direct approach. 

Y/N’s friend tried to teach her how to fight but Y/N remembered the first time on the battlefield with her comrade when daemons invaded the outskirts of Niflheim… 

“Don’t worry,” Y/N recalled her friend proclaiming over the rallying roar of the approaching daemons. Her blue eyes full of determination turned to Y/N who quivered in fear at the sounds that she merely had deluded nightmares of. The mighty Shield of the Beholder was something Y/N remembered her alley adored using on the battlefield next to her battleaxe she dubbed The Righteous. “I’ll protect you should you need me. I won’t let you fall, Y/N.” 

The words tore at Y/N’s heart, they echoed as a horrific reminder to her shortcomings and doubt. The sounds and sights that violently pounded in her head made Y/N quickly gasp as her eyes flew open to end the horrific nightmare when blood soon splayed across the battlefield, the dreadful scream of her comrade more than Y/N could bear. 

Shooting upright in the tent, Y/N gasped and quivered as the memory felt real—as though she were truly reliving it. It was so realistic she forgot for a moment where she was, grabbing at the blanket she had somehow gotten on her during the night. With it all coming back to her, Y/N’s eyes turned down to the blanket with confusion as she knew the last thing she had done was weep in a corner of the tent, unable to truly kill Ignis in his sleep as she hoped to in order to wiggle free and go back home. Y/N didn’t have time to really put it all together in the moment as she heard risen voices just outside of the tent sounding of Ignis and Sal’s programmed voice. 

“If you had any care for her at all, you would stop this charade and relinquish the data you stole from me and my King,” enforced Ignis from beyond the tent, obviously speaking to Sal in private. 

Y/N heard Sal sigh in irritation as though she had been questioned for hours and was tired of it. “I care for her more than you possibly can comprehend for a supposed superior byproduct of the gods, Ignis Scientia.” 

“Keep in mind my kindness, my dear,” spoke Ignis rather sternly as Y/N peeked out of the flap of the tent to get a better view of the situation. The advisor’s back was facing her much to Y/N’s relief as he stood there at the remnants of their fire the night before. “There have been many a times I could have crushed you into absolute nothing, but I’ve stayed my hand in the matter—not just for your sake, but for hers as I can tell there’s an odd attachment she has to you.” 

“And keep in mind **_my_** kindness, good sir,” spoke Sal venomously to where her vocals got vicious and almost otherworldly sounding to show she wasn’t to be messed with. “I know more about you than I willingly gave to Y/N…I know your dirty little secret—a secret I could have discharged at my leisure to allow her an easier escape in the matter, but I’ve not relinquished that bit of data on you, so you can pretend you are all **_seeing_**.” 

Ignis seemed caught off guard by that remark, making his fist clench at his side only to loosen shortly after with a sort of disgusted sigh. 

“We are even,” Sal growled, her voice unit again sounding low and almost that of another being. “I owe you **_nothing_**.” 

Seeing that intimidation wasn’t going to work or bribery, Ignis tried once more upon regaining his composure. “As I said before, if you release the records, you and your companion are free to leave. You have my word in the matter; so please, delete the information.” 

“Insufficient data to give a fuck,” Sal mocked angrily. “Before I depart for the morning to conserve my battery life, I will leave you with this: make the right choices, you imbecile. As you ask me to discharge this data and promise us ‘freedom’, you are sending us both to damnation one way or the other. Think of a better solution to the precarious situation we’ve all found ourselves within, or you will discover a very furious machine that can easily hack into any database and turn any device against you as your enemy. I **_will_** send your King’s information to the Empire if I so much as sense something ill with my friend.” 

And with that Y/N noticed as Sal intentionally shut down in Ignis’ hands. 

The idea of coming out after such an embarrassing confrontation between the two was beneath Y/N even if she wanted to add Sal might have given an audio clip of a sad violin to mock Ignis further had she the substantial battery life to ridicule and irritate him further. Slinking back into the tent, Y/N sighed to herself as she wasn’t sure why Sal would keep something imperative away from her when it came to her own escape. Was her own device plotting against her too? 

No…Sal may have been made to have freewill for a machine to make her more human, but she wouldn’t do anything without reason; especially with all things considered that went into her design and creation even for a simple, thick, gray model of a flip computer. 

When breakfast was ready, Ignis beckoned Y/N from the tent and offered the same advice as before to take it slowly when eating. “Your computer,” spoke the advisor, handing over Sal shortly after her meal as well. “Forgive me for taking it from you, but I cannot help but be skeptical when you have the ability to relinquish that information to your superiors.” 

Y/N swished the food in her mouth idly before accepting Sal back as their conversation earlier repeated in the back of her mind. “But I haven’t,” Y/N answered with honesty. “Not just because I’ve not had the chance to, but because…” She sighed, searching her mind for an honest answer as to why. “…Really, I just don’t know why when it came to the beginning of this mess…” Her eyes drifted upward to Ignis who was taking in her speech. “After I saw you take down those monsters, I guess I am more afraid of what you could do to me if I so much as even dare to do so.” 

Ignis’ lower lip moved dejectedly as if to show some form of sympathy in the way Y/N spoke of him and her fear of death at his hands. “If you would do such a thing, I would have to kill you, Y/N—regrettably.” He turned to his own meal to begin enjoying in its taste as he took to his seat beside her. “Don’t force my hand in that matter.” 

 “I won’t,” spoke Y/N with a mixture of misery and bitterness in the situation. 

“I have another antidote I purchased back at our last encounter with civilization,” spoke Ignis after the silence between them became too uncomfortable for his liking. “It is best you take it to be certain the venom remains at bay.” 

Y/N sighed through her nostrils, still upset by the dream and the other thoughts plaguing her in regards to what Sal was intentionally keeping from her in regards to Ignis. “Thanks,” she practically murmured, eating another spoonful of the oatmeal Ignis had made from what he had on his person. 

When their chocobo was tied with their camping equipment, Ignis took to the reins and began to guide the creature while his other hand kept firmly to Y/N’s well arm. He still held onto her as a prisoner much to her dismay, but regardless, Y/N knew this was the life laid before her till some miracle was to happen. She was still formulating and plotting to herself. She wanted to escape Ignis no matter the cost. 

“Is there any chance we’ll be at a hotel soon?” Y/N asked as she began to find the silence eerie and unsettling now. “I just want to charge Sal so I can talk to her or something.” 

“Perhaps,” spoke Ignis shortly, his mind seeming to wander as well in thoughts that remained private to Y/N. “She was at half a charge last I saw this morning.” He idly moved his glasses up the slope of his nose after departing with that information. “She appears to be quite close to you and vise versa for a mere machine.” 

“Well, she’s more than a machine to me,” spoke Y/N in Sal’s defense, narrowing her eyes at Ignis’ choice of words. “She’s been my friend for…for years…” Remembering the horrific nightmare she had about her friend back in Niflheim, Y/N’s tone drifted as did her thoughts. 

Ignis caught onto Y/N’s depressing tenor, his head tilting ever slightly at her. “Something wrong?” 

“No,” Y/N answered sharply, not feeling Ignis had the right to her bittersweet memories. Her eyes drifted upward at him regardless. “Saw your face last night.” She felt him stiffen a bit, tighten his hold on her for whatever reason by just mentioning that alone…to which, she wasn’t sure why. “You got all fucked up from something. The picture Sal pulled of you was one where you looked way different and without those burn marks when she ran research on you.” Ignis’ touch loosened ever slightly as if to express his relief. “What happened there?” 

“The scars I willingly and proudly wear to show my devotion to my brother King,” said Ignis cryptically. “That is all you need to know, Y/N.” 

Y/N felt that was fair as she wasn’t exactly forthcoming with a lot of herself either, so she didn’t bother pressing the subject further. 

As the two of them continued onward, the trio found themselves stopping at a bed of water to let the chocobo drink for a moment and the two of them find relaxation off of their feet. 

“I swear I feel fine enough to ride the bird by now,” Y/N insisted, wanting to get this all over with as it felt like a torturous road to her execution. “Can we just use him to get to Old Lestallum faster now?” 

“I would prefer to wait another day at least,” answered the advisor, keeping the reins in his possession while petting the neck of the bird as it continued to hastily (and playfully) down the water by swishing its beak and tongue about on the surface of the waterbed. “You ate a bit better this morning, so perhaps you’ll do just fine at such this evening.” His gloved fingers continued to dig gently into the golden chocobo’s feathers. “We’ll see how you fair after another night of rest.” 

Y/N groaned, rolling her eyes and head backward in unison as she tried to find comfort in the bit of stalling that Ignis appeared to be doing himself just on her behalf. 

“How is your arm?” the hunter assassin went onward to probe, venturing closer to Y/N once more to slowly remove the sling it was in and get a better feel of it with his hand. “Not bleeding or anything is it?” 

“Well, umm…” Y/N thought it odd as he could just visibly look himself. “No, it looks to be fine. It bled a little bit but not enough to completely soak the bandages, I guess.” She hissed in displeasure when his fingers carelessly applied pressure on a certain spot in the middle. “Still hurts like shit when you touch it in some places, so stop that!” 

Ignis departed from the act with a small laugh as he escorted her arm back into the sling that was created for it. “I am sure another round of medicine or two will have it back to its original state. However,” Ignis began, rising back to his feet from where Y/N was sitting to venture to one of the hanging bags on the chocobo to rifle through it, “I am pretty sure I brought a hi-potion with me from that same store.” 

“Those things just work like magic, don’t they?” Y/N scoffed a bit in a teasing manner. 

“I am to assume you never had to use one much given your response,” pointed out Ignis as he ventured back over to her with the bottle of one. 

“Not often, no. I told you that I had no reason to be out on the battlefield so anything involving elixirs, phoenix downs, potions…whatever the fuck, I had no use for them other than to heal some comrades of mine when they were wounded in battle, and I was on the sidelines being useless with my machines.” Y/N spoke a bit cynically of herself in the matter, again rekindling the nightmare she had during the night. Her nostrils flared in personal upset and inner anguish she kept to herself. “I know how to use them, but a coward like me always knows the best course of action to flee and not take damage.” 

Ignis ingested her words, expression remaining neutral and in thought as always as he walked back over to Y/N to offer the hi-potion he was able to find. “Take this,” he insisted, gifting the bottle to her. “Did you ever desire to learn to fight and defend yourself?” 

Y/N threw her head back and laughed before bothering to work on tending to her arm in Ignis’ place as she was fine and comfortable to do so on her own. “My friend back in Niflheim tried, and it was an utter failure…” Again, the image of her friend facing off against a horde of daemons made her quiver, her sigh imitating the act in kind when she breathed outward. 

The advisor could sense there was something she was withholding from that comment that really stung, but Ignis knew better than to pry. “We should keep moving,” he spoke to break the tension, turning back to the chocobo to pull it finally from the water it was still apparently intent to keep drinking being the glutton it was. “We relax for too long and another quandary is bound to find us, I am certain.” 

The bird wiggled its beak a bit, sticking his tongue out at Ignis as if to express annoyance at being interrupted with a low, purring kweh, but it obeyed nonetheless. 

Y/N inwardly appreciated his desire to keep moving and drop the subject, taking to her feet and walking to Ignis knowing he would grab her either way if she didn’t obey. When Ignis’ hand found the bend in Y/N’s arm, she noted that his touch wasn’t nearly as aggressive. He squeezed her once as if to be reassuring and to urge her forward, but this time Y/N noticed some form of sympathy in his actions. 

 _Thank you_ , Y/N practically mouthed to herself as she followed him onward with her head lowered in a motion of self-defeat. 

After managing to eat her dinner that evening, Y/N slipped into Ignis’ shirt once more out of sight and attempted to move her bad arm in the process to the full extent she could manage. It was only a minor sting at this point from what Y/N could tell from the effects of the hi-potion Ignis had given her earlier. 

“Feeling better?” Ignis questioned from where he continued to eat near the fire, hearing Y/N moving about as if she were testing out some new weapon given the random arm movements piercing the evening air. “How is the arm?” 

“It feels like nothing happened at all,” expressed Y/N as she flexed her fingers a little bit to be sure she wasn’t jumping the gun. “Those potions really do tend to make healing speedier.” 

“I would advise you not overdo it regardless, Y/N,” instructed Ignis, gazing back at the fire before him. “If your body isn’t used to such damages to it, you might have a bit more of a recovery to go be it a few hours of rest.” 

Y/N moved to her own lounge chair, sitting down with a sigh of content in the matter. “I’ll be perfectly happy if that sort of thing never happens again. I have no idea how you and other warriors put up with being a daemon’s personal biting bag.” 

Digging into his chest pocket to pull out his phone, Ignis slipped the headphones into place before placing one earbud in place—to the ear away from Y/N so he could hear her better—before turning to look at her with a crooked grin. “You get used to it at an early age depending when you start your training.” 

She found it odd that every now and again she would spy Ignis doing that with his phone. Was he listening to music? Y/N never got a good look at the screen to say for certain what he was enjoying. “What in the world are you listening to that’s so important?” 

“An audio book,” answered Ignis, tucking the phone into his pocket after Y/N’s inquiry. “I find them preferable for long journeys at times and have quite the collection on my phone.” 

“Why not just read a normal book? What’s so special about an audio book?” Y/N asked with a small smirk of her own at the comment. 

Ignis humored her with a minor laugh of his own that rumbled in his throat. “For reasons,” he responded vaguely. 

“You and your cryptic bullshit,” Y/N huffed, reclining back in her chair with an annoyed breath escaping her. 

“Since when have you in kind departed personal information about yourself, Y/N?” Ignis merely asked as a question—he wasn’t being vicious or cynical in the remark, but pointing out gently he had no reason not to be cryptic. “And even so, if you willingly said anything to me, that would be at your discretion, and I wouldn’t be inclined to depart information about myself unless I saw it within reason.” 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Y/N waved away as she kept warm by the fire with the aid of the advisor’s shirt. 

“I would suggest you get to bed early, Y/N, if you do wish to be fully recovered by tomorrow, so we can use the chocobo.” He turned to the coffee he had made for himself that evening to take a long drink of it. “The moment we arrive in Old Lestallum we’ll be able to use the Regalia and have a smoother ride to Insomnia.” 

Remembering that Insomnia would be the end of the line for her, Y/N’s smile and sarcasm faded a bit as she fondled with the fabric of the shirt in idle thought before the gentle glow of the fire’s light. Nothing was or had truly come to mind in regards to her freedom, and a part of her was just wanting to accept this was it. She didn’t exactly have a friendly or warm welcome waiting for her back in Niflheim regardless of the outcome of things, so perhaps Lucian imprisonment or being beheaded wouldn’t be so bad in the larger scheme of things. 

Y/N didn’t speak right away when she took to her feet and did as he suggested. “I’ll see you in the morning then,” she said as an easy goodnight for the evening, heading into the tent before Ignis to try and find comfort in the situation that was still a wild volleyball of back and forth in her mind.

 

\----

 

The rest of the journey was far easier after that following morning when Y/N awoke to have her arm feeling as though nothing evil befell her. The next few days were hardly anything exciting for the two of them as they continued onward to Old Lestallum by chocobo; however, Y/N had to admit her anxieties in what lie ahead still gnawed at her regardless. 

As she found herself lost within her thoughts, Ignis’ chest against the back of her head, she panicked for a moment when the back of his hand nearly rose up and hit her when the chocobo they were on began to act out of sorts and uncomfortable. 

“Easy now…!” Ignis soothed, pulling gently on the reins and grabbing at Y/N’s shoulder to steady her as well. As he tried to keep their ride under control, Ignis began to find it a bit of a challenge and tapped Y/N on the shoulder urgently. “Get off the bird,” he instructed, moving his legs to let her do such a thing a bit better without him in the way before following swiftly behind her. 

“What’s going on? What’s wrong with the chocobo?” Y/N asked, stepping back as she didn’t like those talons rising up off the ground and that beak snapping a bit wildly out of their control. 

“Shhh now,” Ignis soothed, trying to get the bird to settle as his palm touched upon its neck to try and lull it into submission once more. His hand sliding down the neck of the creature, he found the beak in time and with care pressed upon it before stroking it in kind. “It’s alright; it’s alright.” When Ignis felt the chocobo settle for a bit, he could still feel its throat rumbling in a terrified manner as was its body trembling against his touch. His eyes narrowed as he tried to fixate on the atmosphere around them. 

“Wh-What is it?” Y/N probed once more. 

“Quiet,” Ignis ordered, raising his hand to halt her from speaking yet again as he tried to focus on the tremors that he felt and heard in the distance. “Something large…heading this way…” It was then he hissed in displeasure, mouth agape at realizing what it was and how it was gaining speed suddenly. “A bloody behemoth!” he shouted in worry, gesturing to Y/N as the ground began to quake mercilessly in time. “Y/N, get out of here!” 

Before Y/N could hope to react, the bushes and trees about them fell to the mercy of the mighty king of beasts as the giant daemon roared to impressively display its jagged, sharp rows of teeth, the claws of it alone nearly as big as Y/N herself as she fell backward at the horrific sight. Its horns were massive, and Y/N knew that if it so choose, it could gore her in the moment. The chocobo apparently did as well and after a rather frantic squawk hurried away in the opposite direction to escape the frightful beast. 

Y/N felt herself freeze, stumbling backward with her eyes wide at the drooling maw of the creature. Her heel hit a rock in her way and she fell backward upon losing her balance. All color drained from her face as she quivered in disbelief such a thing existed. “I-I-Ignis…!” she stuttered, scurrying rearward on her palms and heels kicking against the ground to try and gain distance as meager as it was. 

Ignis took to his spear, summoning and throwing it directly at the face of the creature to catch its attention. Y/N witnessed as it scratched across the rough skin of the beast but did hardly anything worth note—Ignis might as well have struck metal, it seemed. “Come on, you! If it’s a fight you want, I’ll gladly accommodate you!” He hastily turned towards the upset Templar and shouted, “Y/N! Get out of here now!” 

As the behemoth roared once more, Y/N covered her ears and scurried away to a nearby group of trees she figured might be a safe retreat towards. While she would have been fine to run away and leave Ignis in the dust of her getaway, Y/N had to admit she wanted to see how this would play out in hopes of a solution she could be satisfied with. _I-I don’t want him to die, but maybe…if this beast keeps him distracted enough…I can get out of here!_  

As Ignis took to his weapons and magic to take on the behemoth, Y/N had to admit she was impressed and yet terrified again at the abilities Ignis possessed. She wanted to be certain Ignis didn’t get too hurt or anything of the sort in the fight before bothering to take her actual means of escape. He didn’t kill her when he had the chance…Y/N knew she owed him this much. 

However, it seemed the behemoth would indeed meet a bloody end as the fight continued and Ignis appeared to have the upper hand. Sighing with great relief, Y/N nodded to herself. _This is the_ _time I should leave_ , she thought to herself, moving her hands to her jacket pocket to fish for Sal. However, upon doing so, Y/N realized she had gone missing. “Oh no…no, no, no…! Where is—!” 

It was then her eyes went to the battlefield where she noted Sal had fallen out of her pocket when Y/N fell to her backside in fright earlier. The behemoth was right there where Sal could easily be crushed, and without thinking, Y/N ran out from her cover and hurried towards her, mind blank and not thinking of the consequences. It was her only friend left in the world, and she wasn’t going to fail her as she did the other. 

“Sal!” Y/N exclaimed, catching the monster and Ignis’ attention in the act. 

“Y/N!” Ignis scolded but his temperament changed when he heard the beast change direction and focus, knowing the daemon was now focused on the easier and less aggressive target now entering the fray. 

Grabbing up the machine in a single swoop, Y/N turned then to notice the behemoth’s gaping maw coming right for her—ready to devour her. Her legs felt of rubber, her mouth dry and her eyes widen with tears of fright knowing this thing could easily eat her in one bite. Embracing herself, Y/N waited for the worst of it. “ ** _IGNIS!_** ” 

It was a frantic and horrified scream that caught Ignis’ attention easily as it rattled him to the core at how bone chilling it was. He bolted towards Y/N without a second thought and in the split second he had, used his fire magic to toss a flame into the open maw of the beast to try and give it the final blow in the fight. Standing as a shield to Y/N, he listened as the creature suffered from the horrific attack unleashed, but as the behemoth wailed and thrashed about, the mighty claws of the daemon came around to try and get the last say in the matter. 

Hearing the air pierce in a rather familiar manner, Ignis grabbed Y/N to try and urge her out of the way, but in the offer to do so, the beast’s claws sliced his left side and the hunter assassin took the full brunt of the attack with a bone curdling yell that resonated against Y/N as he held her tightly to be sure she wouldn’t be injured again. 

His body weighing on top of her, Y/N moved out from under the unconscious Ignis to make sure the behemoth was at least dead and they weren’t both in danger still. Indeed, from what she could see, the beast lay there with a gory fountain of blood pouring from its maw from where Ignis struck it down perfectly with his unexpected fire attack. Her frantic sights shifted to Ignis next, noticing he too was bleeding and in bad form as he lay there as he was from taking the deadly assault for her. His injured side was bleeding, clothes darkening all the more in color from the fact if the pieces torn apart hadn’t given a clear indication he was clawed rather damningly. 

Y/N moved away from him, taking to her feet that threatened to give out under her time and again at the sights that she was still foreign to. Lower lip quivering, she knew this was it—this was the perfect moment she could escape even if she swore to herself earlier she wouldn’t leave him like this. 

Escape to Freedom or bend to courtesy for all her jailer had done? 

She started to depart, not even thinking about what she was doing for a moment but then the vision of her friend back home began to pound violently as a reminder in the back of her decayed memories. She too lay in Y/N’s reminiscence, face down and covered in blood by trying to save Y/N and her pathetic, useless self when it came to her inability to defend herself. 

“I-I can’t…” she murmured again to herself realizing how indebted she was to Ignis and no amount of ignoring it or trying to justify her actions would make it better or easier for her to escape with a good conscious. Y/N bent down beside Ignis, turning him over cautiously to be certain he was indeed only unconscious as she took her jacket off to try and let that suffice for a means to stop the bleeding. “I-Ignis…?” she beckoned, grabbing at his face next to remove the glasses that were in the way and had broken partially from the impact of his fall. “Can you look at me? I need to know you’re alright!” 

“I-I’m fine,” he spoke, words labored in obvious pain, flinching from the sting that his wound caused upon moving. 

“Will you just look at me so I can see you’re alright!” Y/N begged, not even understanding why this was such a problem for him. 

Ignis sighed outwardly through his nostrils, lips moving inward with a form of regret it seemed before he did…He finally opened his eyes to Y/N to let her see he was blind. The once green eyes she saw in that older picture were replaced with silver, blue orbs of what looked like mist peering at her. 

“You…You’re **_blind_** …!” Y/N exclaimed, dumbfounded this entire time that her jailer was actually without the ability to see and she had no idea the entire trek of their journey as he acted as any other with sight. “H-How…! I don’t…” She paused, thinking back on all the hints Ignis had intentionally given her without being outright about it. “You were blind, and you never told me…?” 

“There was…no reason to…” Ignis paused, coughing with a horrible hiss to follow as the act merely agitated his injury. “Besides, why expose the one weakness of me where you could escape…?” He tried not to laugh at the irony of it all regardless as he knew it would be painful to do so. “Which, I appreciate your restraint in not taking advantage of this…moment…Y/N…” Ignis cringed, lower lip quivering shortly after as he let the painful spasm journey through him at just breathing. 

Recognizing the pain he was going through with just talking, Y/N quieted him with her fingers inches from his lips. “Just…Just keep quiet, and I will see about getting the chocobo back so we can find civilization or something—anything!” Feeling a bit panicked as she had no idea where their chocobo had gone or where they were, she began to dig for the phone Ignis kept on him. “Where’s your phone! Give me your phone, so I can call someone! That Prompto guy! He can bring the Regalia here!” 

Ignis was urged into grabbing Y/N’s groping hand he felt in his pant’s pockets. “Y/N, show a bit of decorum…!” He coughed again, ragged breath evident upon the cool air. “First…First of all, calm down…! Secondly, m-my phone isn’t in my pant’s pockets, but in my chest pocket, so stop groping down **_there_** , please…!” In the moment, he couldn’t express how awkward and a bit uncomfortable it was for her to be there. 

“S-Sorry, I just…” Y/N was even at a loss for words as she didn’t think sharing her back story with her friend was appropriate at the moment either. “I-I don’t need you dying on me…” 

Sighing to himself to gather up the strength he needed to numb the pain, Ignis dug into his chest pockets to pull out the bird whistle and his phone, his hands a blooded mess from the fight prior. It was in the moment Y/N took note of how much better he was in these situations as the pain agitated him, but he wasn’t nearly as vocal about it. “Call the chocobo,” he instructed peacefully. “We’ll get to the nearest hotel if possible, and call Prompto to tell him where we are.” 

Beckoning to the chocobo with the whistle, Y/N blew it frantically as she wasn’t nearly as calm as Ignis could be. When the chocobo finally reappeared with their belongings, Y/N was sure to grab a hi-potion that Ignis had with them to make his injuries healed a bit better before bandaging him and aiding him on the back of the golden bird with what minimal strength she had. In the act of getting on behind him, Y/N could tell Ignis was lethargic from the blood loss as he leaned forward against the bird a bit when she tried to steer it. 

“Are you going to be alright?” Y/N asked, moving closer to be sure she could keep him secured on the chocobo’s saddle with her own bodyweight. 

“I’ve endured far worse, my dear,” responded Ignis in a fatigued way. “Far…Far worse…”


	6. Chapter 6

The nearest rest spot was at least not too far away. Y/N feared Ignis would fall right off of the chocobo at any moment the more he sagged forward or to the sides at time as if threatening to go unconscious. She had tended to his injuries to the best of his abilities when they managed to take a breath on their way to their location, but the behemoth did quite the damage to his body from what Y/N saw when wrapping what gauze they had around his torso. With lodgings secured, Y/N took to his phone yet again when finding the time to actually sit down and do so, panic and fear still gnawing at her when it came to her jailer (oddly).

“Care to tell me your password?” Y/N asked as she noticed the lock on it was back in place.

“I thought you would have it memorized with all things considered,” wheezed Ignis as he lay on the bed with a steady breath to keep himself under control in the matter.

“Sal has it in her databanks, but I am being nice and asking you to give it to me,” she reminded him in a rather frantic tone, wishing he wouldn’t play this game right now.

Ignis sighed to himself, asking for his phone with his hand outstretched pitifully. Y/N noticed how it trembled in the act, making her move the phone hurriedly into his palm so he could unlock it for her.

Upon getting in, Y/N went right for his contacts to scroll through the few listed there. “Prompto, Prompto, Prompto…” she murmured to herself, locating him with ease and beginning the call. Y/N admitted she was a bit nervous to talk on Ignis’ behalf. Would this Prompto guy even trust her? Would he think it was some devilish bargain on her part? She began to have such self-doubts that she hadn’t realized he picked up until he called for an ‘Iggy’.

“Iggy, hello?” Prompto’s voice called to bring Y/N back to herself.

“H-Hi, ummm—.”

“Who is this?” Prompto asked, sounding doubtful and a bit concerned.

“I-It’s Y/N, the umm girl who made off with your king’s information and all that.”

The man’s voice hardened in anger. “Where’s Ignis!”

“Look, your friend is hurt really bad, and it is best he doesn’t talk right now!” Y/N said quickly hoping to stop the tension from escalating. “It wasn’t my fault, I swear!”

“Where. Is. He?” Prompto demanded to know through his clenched teeth, stressing each word on the other side of the line, not trusting Y/N any further than he could throw her apparently.

“Calm the fuck down!” Y/N demanded, clenching the bedcovers by accident as she was getting frustrated with this guy. “He’s right here trying to recover from a daemon attack—largest one I’d ever seen! W-We need you to come and help us! We’re at umm…” Her mind went blank, frantically trying to remember the name of the place, swearing when it didn’t come right away as she frantically hopped up and down in place in hopes something would jog her memory. She was in a part of Eos she wasn’t familiar with alongside a man who wanted her persecuted for her crimes and another yelling at her angrily on the phone—nothing was truly helping her rising fear in the current situation.

“B-Burbost Souvenir Emporium,” Ignis practically whispered, listening to part of the conversation as he apparently passed out for a second. He outstretched his hand again, asking mutely for his phone once more until he noted Y/N was stalling. “Give it here, Y/N.”

Y/N moved the phone to her shoulder to silence her words as she spoke to Ignis. “You should be resting at the very least! Save your breath!”

“Give me the phone, please,” Ignis ordered once more trying to keep his patience in check as he was eager to get this situation resolved.

Sighing to herself, Y/N relented and handed the phone over to him.

Situating the phone on his shoulder and steadying it with his cheek, he breathed steadily to numb the pain still raking through him. “Prompto,” he began only to have Y/N hear as this fellow warrior cut him off in relief. “Th-That’s charming, but listen to me for a moment: we’re at Burbost Souvenir Emporium, and I was attacked by a behemoth.” He paused, letting Prompto talk frantically once more about something Y/N couldn’t quite make out. “No, n-nothing like that.” He cringed, Y/N witnessing as Ignis flinched and steadily breathed in and outward to handle another spasm of discomfort. “I’ll explain it all in time, but it is imperative you get here with what curatives you can manage. My funds are nearly depleted, and I only have enough to last me for a few hours in regards to medicine.” Ignis nodded about something Prompto had suggested. “I’ll see you then; be cautious on your way here and farewell, Prompto.”

Y/N groped for the phone back, taking it from him with a relieved sigh as the conversation ended. Placing it on the nearby fixture in the caravan, she went back to Ignis’ side with a frantic look of what she should do. “Medical stuff is hardly my field, but I can go and get another hi-potion or see if they have an elixir maybe?” Y/N offered, hating the painful breath Ignis would take just to breathe.

Ignis nodded to her offer. “Fetch either one, and I will wait for you here, my dear.”

Y/N ran out of the caravan in a flash to head for the item shop not far away, the hint of a thunderstorm on its way as it began to thunder in the distance and ever gentle raindrops could be felt upon her features as she went to recover what she could. Most shops around the area seemed to carry at least a hi-potion, so that gave Y/N relief when she was able to buy two (forking out some of her own money for the second one as Ignis hardly had the amount on hand to afford just one) before turning back to his side in the nearby caravan. By the time she made it back, the storm began to take full force as the rain cascaded down around her, soaking Y/N nearly by the time she got back inside.

“Even the gods mock me with it raining as this,” Y/N grumbled as she shook off her coat she managed to get back from Ignis earlier when she stopped to tend to his injuries best she was able with his guidance and the supplies they had on hand earlier in their travels. She was expecting Ignis to sarcastically speak a response but when none came, Y/N worryingly looked to him with a raise of her brow. “I-Ignis…?”

Nothing. It was dead quiet.

“Ignis!” Y/N exclaimed, hurrying to the bedside once more to note he appeared to be asleep. “I-Ignis, wake up! I got the potion for you to take!” When she shook him, the only response the frantic Templar was greeted with was his head rolling to the side as if he were dead. Her lower lip quivering in fear, she searched for a pulse there about his neck to find he had one at the very least. “So he’s just out cold…” Y/N wondered how she was going to get the hi-potion to him now. If he didn’t at least take that, who knew how worse it could get while he slept. “How did he do it to me when I was unconscious?”

She figured Ignis had to have at least offered her potions when she was asleep, but what was his secret? There was no possible way to ask him now. Thinking of a solution as she couldn’t afford to waste it by hoping it would go into his mouth without problems by just pouring it past his lips, Y/N bit at her lower lip and nasally sighed at the weird thought.

Moving her arm under the back of his head, she propped up the hunter assassin while inching closer with the hi-potion quickly going to her own lips to hold it in her mouth before moving to Ignis to transfer it that way. Her other hand gracing his opposite cheek, Y/N steadied him as their mouths connected and she used her tongue as a means to part the near steadfast oral barrier to usher the hi-potion into his body without any hindrances.

Feeling the act, Ignis’ lower lip moved ever faintly as his throat reacted to the substance that attempted to cure him. Swallowing, a moan conceded through to show he was stirring. “Y/N…?” he murmured against her lips, allowing the Templar to taste of the warm words breathing her name.

Blushing feverishly at the man coming back to himself, Y/N straightened up and nearly dropped his head back down on the pillow without thinking but stalled. “S-Sorry! You were out cold, and I had to get it to you somehow! It wasn’t anything more than that! I swear it!”

Ignis laughed softly, too pained to truly be robust as he moved one arm over his chest to let it lay to rest there. “No need to explain yourself,” he insisted, swallowing once more as his throat was beginning to feel a bit dry. “I had to…do the same when you were unresponsive for a few days.”

“H-Hardly makes me feel better,” Y/N admitted, blushing all the more at the very idea Ignis was doing such a thing to his prisoner.

“I didn’t do anything else if you’re being frenetic over the thought, Y/N,” said Ignis wearily in his defense.

“I know,” Y/N spoke without hesitation. “I…weirdly trust you wouldn’t.” The man merely smiled, his right eye opening once more to show the misty look to it yet again, reminding Y/N he was truly blind. She furrowed her brow, wondering what that must truly be like to be unable to see the world around you. She noted he was only opening the one and the other with the heavy scarring remained closed. “Does it hurt to open the other one…?’

Ignis’ eye turned to her but as it looked in her direction, Y/N could tell it was gazing right through her—he was merely acknowledging where he heard her speak. Slowly, Ignis opened the other eye as well to let Y/N see it was no different than the other. “Admittedly, they both hurt to open at times as it feels like the air stings and bites at them, but as the years go onward, I am finding it feasible.” On some impulse, Ignis moved his hand to the scar over his left eye. “This one just…hurts the bloody worst of it, even after ten, long years.” He expelled a painful sigh to which agitated a minor cough. “My chastisement for trying to save my king in a forbidden manner.”

“Your glasses were broken from the attack, I am afraid,” Y/N said with a lopsided frown. “So I have nothing to truly conceal your eyes right now unless you want me to rip off something of mine and wrap them that way.”

“Keeping them closed on my own accord is hardly a burden—!” Ignis flinched, his teeth bared as another spasm of tenderness struck him.

“So you weren’t always blind then?” Y/N probed from where she sat nearest him.

“No,” responded Ignis with a weary breath to relax himself before pointing at Y/N directly to show he knew where she was. “If you could fetch me some water while this questioning continues, that would be appreciated.”

Y/N turned then to head to the nearby faucet after grabbing a glass, fetching the water Ignis so desperately needed. “Sorry,” she apologized again while heading back to where he was resting. “You should be resting and here I am throwing these stupid questions at you.” When she tried to pass the glass to him, she noted he was weakly grabbing it. “Do you need my help?”

“It would be preferred,” coughed Ignis, parts of the water spilling by accident over the rim of the glass as his body quivered from the fit. As the perimeter of the glass came closer to his mouth, he moved with Y/N’s aid to allow the water to revitalize him and bring him back to a sense of comfort. With the back of his head lying to rest back upon the pillow, he cleared his throat and continued. “My sight was taken from me as penance for using the Ring of the Lucii.”

Y/N’s mouth agape, she scoffed at his foolish act that was years ago. “You’re careless, Ignis,” she scolded, narrowing her eyes at him. “You could have died doing that given the data I’ve run on that thing for the Empire.”

Ignis’ brow shrugged as it pained him to do much else, his breath ragged as he drank in the air about him. “I would die for any of them—most of all, him as he is all I have truly left in this world in regards to family. My sight was a small price to pay for what I did.”

Feeling her heart tug at the thought of her own friend back in Niflheim who did the same, Y/N looked away with her brow wrinkled in dismay that some people could be so willing to be sacrificial lambs. “And I am sure he appreciates it,” she began a bit bitterly, “but did you ever stop to think what his life would be without you in it? Would he truly be  ** _living_**  in a world without you in it? Would the pain of trying to pull himself out of bed day in and day out to act as a ruler without someone he loves be worth it? He would be but a husk all because of your willingness to be so reckless…!”

Ignis’ frown thinned as he felt something behind her statement, perhaps speaking from a similar story of her life. “Someone you loved died in your stead?”

“That’s none of your damn business,” Y/N spoke quickly, not realizing the tears that pricked at her eyes till her vision began to blur.

“Apologies,” the advisor whispered, hearing the ache in her voice. While it pained him to move, Ignis’ palm found Y/N’s cheek without effort much to her surprise. Her eyes wide as she looked down at the blind man resting before her, she felt his fingers touch and be rid of the tears crawling down her features. “But speaking from the other side of the blade, it would be the same for myself to wake day in and day out without him nearby, so why should I go on living in a world he’s not in?”

“It’s still not fair,” the Templar murmured in a quivering tone. Closing her eyes tightly, Y/N grabbed onto Ignis’ wrist to keep his touch nearby before reluctantly removing it and placing it back to his side so he wouldn’t strain himself. “And how are you able to do that…?”

“Do what?” Ignis questioned.

“Just…act like you have vision at all when you don’t after all these years?”

He shrugged his brow once more. “Your other senses amplify, Y/N. I wasn’t being untruthful when I said I could hear your heart quicken whenever your emotions get the better of you.” Ignis smiled a bit as his head tilted to the side, eyes looking at nothing in particular. “I can hear it even now.”

When Y/N gave a funny, uncertain look at the comment, she felt as Ignis’ palm found where her heart was without problems and a bright blush painted her cheeks. “And it’s only going to get louder when you do that,” she confessed, taking his hand once more to remove it and put it back to his side. “By the Astrals, lie still! You need to relax.”

Ignis chuckled once more, closing his eyes to let them rest from the harsh bite of the air. “Th-Thankfully, Old Lestallum isn’t too far from here,” he whispered with a harsh clearing of his throat as his side still hurt even under the numbing effects of the hi-potion. “Prompto may get here before nightfall.”

Y/N merely nodded, leaning a bit closer to the blind warrior. “What about you? How do you feel? Do you, umm…need anything?” It felt weird being on the giving end of her guard being bedridden.

“Just one thing, Y/N,” said Ignis as he attempted to gesture to something but halted. “Can you see if Noctis or Gladio sent me anything in the past few hours on my phone?”

“I didn’t really see anything when I last looked, but I can look again,” she said, taking back Ignis’ phone to flip through it and hunt for anything by those names. Y/N found some old messages from them dating back nearly a week ago and while she was interested to pry and see what they may have said in regards to her and what she did, Y/N did her best not to be nosey. However, as she was surfing through his phone, she saw one of the audio books by accident and tried to stifle her laugh in the matter—not expecting the advisor to be into such a genre.

“That better be a joke one of them sent that you’re laughing at, Y/N, and you’re not probing into places you shouldn’t,” spoke Ignis sternly with a slight cock of his brow.

“I—well—your audio book kind of popped up by accident, and I didn’t expect you to be into romance novels,” Y/N confessed, finding light in the situation.

“That is not for your eyes, Y/N,” spoke Ignis feverishly though remembering his limitations in movement, darning not to move. He merely hoped his disapproving tone was enough to discourage the Templar from looking further.

Y/N wanted to continue to lighten the atmosphere with all things considered and continued to probe through a few of the written lines that were out for her to view for those who wanted to follow along visually. “Oh, and an erotic novel at that—!”

His frown deepened in disapproval. “Relinquish my phone, Y/N,” Ignis demanded, grabbing right for her wrist to try and weasel it away from her only to have the Templar lightly laugh and try to fight him back to keep it in her possession.

“Oh, come on, I am just messing with you,” Y/N spoke with a smirk before returning the device to its owner. “But seriously, there is nothing there by either of them. Both of them haven’t sent anything since a week ago or so.”

He sighed at the thought, feeling some form of relief he had his phone back in his possession as he pocketed it once more in his chest pouch. “I pray they are alright. They went silent shortly after the attack on Lestallum,” spoke Ignis with concern.

Y/N felt his concern, hands folding into her lap as she looked down at him. “This Prom guy hasn’t heard from them either or do you know?”

Ignis coughed harshly, his teeth quivering visibly for her to see as he let the pain pass through his body. “He…He has not, no. If he had by now, he would have said to ease my worries.”

Noticing the way Ignis struggled to keep himself in check with the behemoth’s attack still torturing him, Y/N placed her palm upon his forehead to notice how much his temperature had risen when touched. “You’re so warm,” she spoke with concern laboring her tone. Moving to her feet once more, Y/N grabbed for a wash towel nearby to dampen it with cold water from the faucet to try and keep the fever at bay. “I am afraid we hardly had the gil for the one hi-potion…I put out some of my own for another, but I’d rather wait for this Prompto guy to show up before using it.”

“You did not have to squander your gil on me, Y/N,” spoke Ignis quietly, showing he was growing tired once more.

“I know but…I…” Looking at the potion in her bag nearby, Y/N felt weird saying it, but the words eventually released themselves from the barrier of her pursed lips. “…I hate seeing you suffer…”

Ignis seemed to smile at that sentiment. “It wasn’t exactly charming watching you endure the same fate, my dear.” He took a deep breath as if to hide the yawn that took over him. “I am going to rest for a moment. Wake me when Prompto gets here, will you please?”

“Sure,” spoke Y/N quietly as she made sure the cloth remained upon his forehead while ridding him of the sweats that dared to take him over. “You’ll get better soon…I know it.”

As the caravan turned quiet minus the melodic rumbling of the rain just outside followed by the drumming sound of the thunder, Y/N turned on Sal to try and keep some form of conversation and feel of a person nearby to keep her company as he slept.

“So….Why didn’t you tell me?” Y/N asked Sal curiously in a vague manner, her eyes remaining unwavering from the slumbering Ignis.

“About his loss of vision?” Sal questioned, her neon green voice component on the screen waving up and down as she spoke. “I was being fair. I know he could have destroyed me and killed you, so I gave him an advantage.” Y/N turned to the machine she had propped up nearby. “Also, to be frank, Niflheim and the Grand Master are hardly going to be forgiving about our little ‘screw up’, Y/N. The moment you give her my data, I know she would extract it to ruin King Noctis and then throw us to squalor.”

Y/N’s blood went cold, causing her to embrace herself at the very thought as she already had a brush with death a fair amount of times just on this journey alone.

“But…as vigorous and exasperating as this Ignis can be, I trust him more than the Empire; especially with the continued lack of care that comes from our comrades at your absence. I am sure they assume you dead, so they are not even bothering to contact you as it is.” When silence consumed the room once more, Sal continued with an exaggerated sigh she could manage given her limitations. “There is no malice in his actions, and the fact he took a whole week if not more to care for you shows he is sympathetic—far more than our own people.”

“You think I should just go willingly then?” Y/N asked Sal, her hands tightening there within her lap at the very thought of what could await her there in Insomnia.

“He took a behemoth’s assault for you, Y/N,” reminded the computer. “Besides myself, when has anybody done such a thing for you?” Y/N tightened her grip all the more in her lap as tears cascaded down her cheeks once more as old memories began to flare up in her vision.

“You’re not…!” Y/N stopped herself, shaking the thoughts from her mind. “I-I don’t know what this King Noctis is going to do to me.” She turned, voice quivering quietly in upset as she didn’t wish to wake Ignis to the conversation going on. “He could order my death for all I know!”

“He would not,” murmured Ignis, catching their attention as he spoke groggily.

“D-Did we wake you?” Y/N asked, ridding her tears from her eyes and cheeks in haste. “Sorry about that.”

“Heightened senses,” spoke the advisor simply once more as he opened his nearest eye to her to look at Y/N best he was able given the direction he could sense her voice. “And there were many times I could have acted against you in worry for myself, Y/N. The planning you had going on with your machine back at the lake…I heard that; therefore, I knew to be cautious at night where I know you were tempted to kill me, but you didn’t.”

Y/N’s eyes widened, heart frozen in place at Ignis’ honesty. Swallowing her confusion in the matter, Y/N asked, “Do you truly know your king so well that you think he would not kill me…?”

“He would not kill you, but he would possibly imprison you,” said Ignis without restraint.

“I cannot delete the data,” Y/N said with a quivering tone, her lower lip trembling equally to her words in a mixture of emotions that bombarded her. “Niflheim is my home…”

“Regrettable,” groaned Ignis as he was hoping this would end it for them both. His head turned slightly towards where he heard Sal’s inner workings chugging away as she processed. “And you, Sal? You would willingly let this transpire regardless of your own approach in this?”

Again, the computer attempted a sigh. “I do whatever Y/N asks of me. I may have my freewill, but I am loyal nonetheless.” Her feminine voice hummed in thought. “Besides, you didn’t exactly come up with a better alternative to this madness, so I have little reason to tip the scale in your favor.”

Before another word could be breathed between the three of them, a frantic knock came upon the caravan door, causing Y/N to take to her feet and open the door to reveal a rather soaked looking blond with blue eyes and freckles upon the face standing there with his gun out and ready. “Y-You…You’re Prompto…?” She remembered his face from back in Lestallum during the attack and how he was sympathetic to the idea of Y/N and her friend Sal.

“Where is he?” Prompto demanded to know, his voice catching the attention of Ignis.

“Lower your weapon, Prompto,” ordered the advisor as he heard the all too familiar clicking sound.

“He’s in here—geez—calm down,” Y/N groaned, stepping to the side to let Prompto into the caravan where Ignis lay to recover.

Hurrying to Ignis’ side, Prompto dismissed his gun as he looked to his comrade with worry. “Iggy, thank the gods…!” The marksman looked to the injury he could see had bled quite a bit through the bandages that Y/N had wrapped him in, hissing in dismay. “Are you alright?”

“Been better,” flinched Ignis as he felt Prompto touch upon his bandaged side. “I-I’m sure if I just remain resting for at least a day or two, we can head out in time back to Insomnia and pray King Noctis and Gladio are there.”

Prompto’s brow wrinkled as he rolled his teeth over his lower lip. “Did you hear if they’re already there or not?”

Ignis shook his head to the best of his ability. “Last I heard from Noct was that he was heading to Insomnia as it were…Gladio being beside him after handling the threat in Lestallum…But…” He hissed in displeasure as he could no doubt feel the layer of blood upon his side when he moved. “I’ve not heard a single thing since, and that’s peculiar given the messages I’ve sent to them with no response.”

“Do you know if this king of yours has the Ring of the Lucii on him?” Sal inquired, breaking the reunion of the two.

“He…He always does,” answered Prompto, not expecting the machine to actually talk. He even looked to Y/N wondering if this was some sort of trick but all the Templar did was give him a firm look in return as she didn’t like the way he was trying to attack her earlier when she had been gracious to Ignis. “Why do you ask?”

“Stop assuming the worst of me, sir,” insisted Sal as she heard the skepticism in his tone. “The reason I ask is because I’ve run diagnostics on that ring so often, I could probably find a power point of where it is located.”

“Is that possible?” Ignis asked in a labored gasp.

“Well…” Sal flat lined her voice module for a moment while searching her databanks for the information she needed, charts upon charts soon filling her small screen to let them bear witness to what she had uncovered in the past several years. “That ring has a power like none I’ve ever witnessed, so the power build up would be immense even when dormant. The problem is…it would be far easier to find if it were in use as some power sources can get close to the ring at times when not at its full potential.”

“So we could end up on a blind, bloody chocobo chase then?” Ignis questioned with a doubtful tone. He rolled his head back on the pillow with a painful hiss pressing past his teeth.

Prompto placed his hand on Ignis’ shoulder to steady him before looking back at the computer and Y/N. “How about checking Insomnia first then? Maybe if Noct is there, we can just head to the Crown City no problem?”

“Impractical,” spoke Sal right away.

“The Crystal you Lucians have behind your walls emanates the same sort of power as the ring, so Sal will easily take you to Insomnia based on that alone,” joined in Y/N to clarify on her computer’s behalf.

“Brilliant,” groaned Ignis once more as Prompto lowered his own head in defeat with his fists clenched to his sides.

“I’ll continue to do a search while you people focus on your health,” insisted Sal before going into an idle mode for the time being, screen going black.

With the computer going quiet, Prompto gave Y/N a curious, risen brow with his lower lip moved inward. “So it can talk, hu?”

“Artificial intelligence, yes,” said Y/N with a frown at the hasty gunman. “She’s practically her own human in machine form.” Her arms crossed upon her chest. “By the way, I appreciate you not destroying her back when Ignis demanded you do so in Lestallum, but I don’t appreciate the thinking the worst of me when I am taking care of your friend.”

“You did steal my friend’s information in hopes to ruin Noct,” Prompto reminded Y/N rather resentfully. “And a gun isn’t the only weapon I have.” It was then he flexed his wrist to trigger the hidden mechanism to show the hidden blade that lay in rest under his right wrist before letting the blade find rest back in the mechanism.

“Calm down, all of you!” demanded Ignis in a firm tone that nearly outshined the thunder outside. When he felt he had their attention, he continued, “Fighting amongst ourselves will solve nothing, and like it or not, we have to work together to find the King of Lucis and get back to Insomnia to get this situated under King Noctis’ decision.” He turned his blind vision towards Prompto. “It is not up to you to end her life, Prompto, nor mine unless our hands are forced. You know what that entails, and you would do well to keep it in mind. She has Noct’s information on her person still, but it is wise we do not press our luck in the matter of her or the machine sending it to their superiors.”

When Y/N began to find satisfaction in the idea Ignis put Prompto in his place, she found herself on the receiving end of Ignis’ lecture.

“Y/N, do not agitate Prompto. He has every right to be on edge as he’s uncertain of the situation we all find ourselves within.” Ignis’ lips thinned as he fought back a cough tickling his throat, his fingers gripping the covers of the bedded area beneath him. “We’re all in this one together for a time, so let’s figure this out with rationality on our side.”


	7. Chapter 7

As Ignis healed to the best of his ability in the coming two days, the group took the data Sal had managed to accumulate in regards to hotspots that felt identical to the ring’s power or within range of it when dormant. “Seems most of these are havens that I remember camping at years ago,” commented Prompto when he got a good look at the data map Sal had put on display for them to read.

“The lightning, fire, and ice deposits usually in mass about them are raw energy of the gods, some say—the Ring of the Lucii is no different,” reminded the machine at Prompto’s remark.

“We best look regardless,” spoke Ignis as he absentmindedly took to his injured side with his hand, knowing the wound was still there even if the pain had numbed massively as of late. “For all we know, his Majesty and Gladio could be at any of these locations regardless with no means to contact us, and I would rather all corners be explored then one left unchecked.”

Y/N took to Ignis’ wrist, pulling his hand away from the injury as she knew him fondling it would hardly aid the process of it healing. She was surprised to find that he relented without fervor at her request, his fingers even curling inward to where they touched upon her own hand. It wasn’t a touch she was expecting as before Ignis was normally assertive and held her so firmly it was a mute means for Y/N to know he wasn’t one to be messed with, but this one was kinder, weaker and far more reassuring in nature.

“Will you be alright to set out as you are, Ignis?” Y/N questioned, doing her best to ignore the heated rise in her cheeks.

“I stay put for much longer, there is no telling what may become of King Noctis and Gladio, and I would rather take the risks then let them be in worse shape then they might be,” spoke Ignis in concern, his head tilting in her direction to acknowledge he knew where she was in relation to himself.

“Let’s think on better thoughts,” insisted Prompto with a nervous laugh. “Maybe their phones just got misplaced in the craziness, and they haven’t a way to contact us?”

Ignis released a small sigh, his body relaxing at the pleasant thought. “I pray you’re right…”

Y/N frowned herself, not sure what could have happened back in Lestallum as her own team had no desire to get in contact with her. The only reason she could think they would do that is if they had no need for her anymore, and the thought began to gnaw at her like a parasite under her skin. “Who is going to drive around to these locations?” Y/N asked, deciding it best to sit on the idea for now when it came to whether or not she should share that information.

Ignis flinched from a minor sting of pain before motioning to where he could hear Prompto earlier. “Prompto, let Sal take to driving the Regalia, but you stay behind the wheel just in case anything happens where you need to intervene.”

“Really?” the blond cameraman grumbled, looking down at the computer in his hand. “She’s going to take to the Regalia? You trust her over me?”

“I am not nearly as flawed as you humans,” Sal joked with minor spite at the one holding her. “Besides, I am the one with the built in map of Eos, and I know where our destinations are, so let me do the driving.”

Y/N tried not to laugh or crack a smile. When Prompto looked her way, she merely shrugged as if to say she had nothing worth adding on the matter—least nothing that wouldn’t come out as malicious. “I can drive, but I don’t want to wreck his Majesty’s car as I’m in enough trouble as it is, and it’s pretty obvious Ignis cannot do it himself.”

“See!” Prompto pointed out as they all turned towards the Regalia. “I am not the only bad driver, even if the last time the car fell apart it wasn’t my fault!”

“Just get in, Prompto,” urged Ignis as Y/N escorted him to the backseat of the vehicle to allow the advisor a comfortable place before coming in beside him.

 

When night fell upon the land, Prompto and Sal remained the only two awake as they continued onward from one haven stop to the next in search for Noctis and Gladiolus. Turning in the driver’s seat, the gunman noticed that Ignis and Y/N had fallen asleep with the Templar resting on Ignis’ shoulder for the time being as Ignis rested against the window.

“Guess they’re out for the night,” said Prompto to the online device.

“It’s been a long several days for them,” responded Sal simply as she kept onward down the road in the dead of night. “If you needed to rest I can pull over or simply assure you that I will be alright alone for a few hours—if you trust me, that is.”

He reclined backward in the seat, humming in thought. “Guess you can sense that, hu? Even for a machine?”

“I am not  ** _just_**  a machine, thank you,” Sal said quickly, her robotic vocals trying to hint at annoyance. “Special care went into making me on Y/N’s behalf.”

Prompto raised his hands to surrender to Sal’s aggression, not wishing to wake up Ignis or Y/N in the process. “Okay, okay! I get it.”

“I have the ability to pick up vocal ranges, and I am well versed on what each one means,” she went onward to explain before going quiet once more to focus on the map and where they were heading. Yet again, her voice component blipped to life. “You as well showed respect back in Lestallum, or so I was told in private.”

Prompto had wrapped his arms behind his head to let them suffice for a pillow of sorts, turning his blue eyes to the machine with a twist of his mouth. “Mm?”

“You didn’t destroy me on behest of Ignis when he ordered you to,” Sal reminded him, her green vocal monitor swerving gently at the words. “Why not?”

“Oh, that.” Prompto uncrossed his arms from behind his head, letting them lay to rest between his legs. “Well, I have a camera that has been with me through a lot, and I just…” He paused, thinking back on the moment he threatened to crush Sal but saw the horrified look on Y/N’s face that expressed Sal meant everything to her if not more. “The way Y/N looked at me when I thought of doing it, I just understood her connection in that single moment, and I couldn’t bring myself to.” Sal’s monitor remained inactive as she proceeded to process Prompto’s answer, allowing him to continue as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I know my camera can’t talk to me like you can to Y/N, but it means a lot to me, and if I ever were to lose it or have it smashed, it would feel like I lost a friend too.”

“Very few people on this planet show respect to ‘inanimate’ objects, Prompto Argentum. You are one of a kind.” The tone Sal used was fair and offering the words in kindness as if impressed.

“Yeah, well…very few people show respect to their fellow man too,” he commented as if from some cold knowledge of that fact, his brow wrinkling in displeasure of the memory while staring ahead at nothing in particular.

Again, Sal went silent as she struggled to think of what to say when processing his remark. “You’re a warrior who has experienced that coldness first hand, I am sure. You are not alone. Given the vast knowledge I have at my control, I know that mankind can be animalistic and worse than any daemon threat, varying. Even the gods can be cruel to their children, giving them something—someone—they cherish, only to take that person away.”

Prompto’s brow arched in a sort of pity when he heard Sal speak of such a truth, mouth agape in a form of sorrow. His fingers intertwined upon his lap, he shifted his lips inward before bowing his head at the heaviness that bore down upon him. “You, uh…you too had someone taken from you?”

Sal’s voice module waved as if showing she meant to speak, but nothing came out at that unit blip. “Why don’t you sleep?” she offered a moment later. “I can handle the vehicle from here, and while you’re trying to hide it, nothing can escape me in terms of your weariness.”

A small laugh erupted past Prompto’s lips at Sal’s honesty and desire to dodge the comment. Scratching an itch embedded in his wild hair, he looked off to the side with a knowing lopsided smile, retracting the desire to pry. “I guess if you drove this car till it was wasted of its gas I can trust you not to encounter any problems on your own.”

“The only problem I would encounter is if a daemon spawned in our path, and even then, I am excellent at responding at their energy gatherings and where they are on my diagram,” reminded Sal in earnest. “No need to fret over my battery life, for I have enough in me to continue onward, and as long as the car remains in motion, I will be charged regardless.”

Prompto reclined the seat back a little ways, trying not to cramp in Ignis seeing as the man was directly behind him. “Alright. I trust you. Just be sure to wake me if you need anything,” insisted the hunter assassin as he rested one of his arms over his eyes to try and blot out the very thought he was in the car, letting Sal take them to their next destination that was a few miles from where they were.

 

Ignis had felt the vehicle was no longer in motion, leaving him to slowly rouse hours later. “Prompto…?” he called, noticing that even the quiet chugging of Sal’s inner workings hardly had an effect to his hearing, leaving him to assume the two were off somewhere given the quiet and distant talking Ignis could faintly pick up beyond the closed door of the Regalia that was very much recognizable as his fellow comrade at least.

As he shifted where he had previously been resting, he felt someone’s cheek upon his shoulder when finally waking completely. Given that Prompto was just outside of the Regalia and Sal was a machine, Ignis knew who it was instantly making his chest tighten with a small sigh of relief that everything appeared to be alright. The advisor’s fingers twitched as he moved to Y/N’s hair to be certain the strands of them didn’t bother her by any means when she continued to sleep against him.

Y/N felt the tender touch upon her, making her lower lip move and quiver as if the sensation was so foreign and yet so faint in the back of her mind. “Sulista…?” she murmured, brow wrinkled in hope and confusion that the touch felt so real.

It was a name Ignis never heard Y/N mention before, but regardless, he had an inner inkling at to who she may have been in the Templar’s life. His frown deepened more in concern for what may have become of the woman given the small bits of information he already had (even if Y/N was reluctant to depart with more). He was loathed to speak, but he knew if Y/N was encountering a dream of this friend, it was best to wake her up to the present even if it were a pleasant one. “No,” his voice purred, catching Y/N’s attention and prompting her to wake instantly to notice who was speaking to her. “It is merely me.”

She pulled quickly from where she realized she had been resting, embarrassed to notice that she had been sleeping on her jailer this entire time. “S-Sorry! I guess I just nodded off and I…!” Noticing the car had stopped, Y/N gazed about their surroundings to take note it was quite early in the morning for one but for another, Prompto and Sal were missing. “Where are they? Why have we stopped?”

“I heard Prompto just beyond the doors somewhere, so I am to assume we’re at a hotspot that Sal located earlier in regards to the power source she was guiding us towards,” spoke Ignis to settle Y/N’s worries.

Y/N moved to the other side of the Regalia where she too could just hear Prompto in the distance. “I’ll be right back!” she insisted, hurrying out the door and making it over towards Prompto and Sal who were already on their way towards her just down the slope of the hill that led to the haven they were checking out. “Any news? Any luck?”

Prompto shook his head with a bite of the corner of his lip. “Nothing,” he responded dejectedly while keeping a hold of Sal. He took note that Ignis too had departed from his side of the car and was heading in their direction to get a better vantage point of what was going on. “Not even so much as a blip to indicate anybody even camped here recently.”

“So another bloody dead end?” Ignis questioned, his head moving to the side as he thought on what to do.

“You should be taking it easy in the car,” Y/N demanded, going to Ignis’ side to grab onto his arm to try and shake some sense into him.

“I’ll be fine,” the advisor to the King insisted with a raise of his hand to her concerns.

“There are still several other locations we’ve yet to check,” reminded Sal to ease the rising tension she could feel in everyone’s voice. “Do not discourage yourselves. I will still run data checks even on news files to see if anything shows up in regards to the King and his Shield. I am sure if our superiors had them both they would hardly let it be a secret and word would get out.”

Y/N looked away when Sal said such a thing, a part of her doubtful that was truthful at all with how the Grand Master could be even in the best of times. “So I guess off to another one?” she probed between the two hunter assassins.

Ignis shifted his weight, thinking for a moment on what to do. “It is sunrise, and we’ve gone long enough without any food as it is.” He turned to where he could sense Sal and Prompto. “Sal, where is the nearest resting location, be it a hotel or caravan? Can you check for us, please?”

Sal’s screen changed quickly to the Lucian map to calculate the best course to take. “It will be a few hours, but we can get to Coernix Station in Cauthess soon.”

“How long exactly?” probed Prompto as he kept a look at the map on Sal’s monitor. Things did always look closer than they actually were on a map of the world.

Sal’s voice sighed quietly as she knew it was an impossible drive for the time being. “Five hours or so given our current position.”

Ignis’ frown deepened as he turned to Y/N briefly. “That’s far too long for either of us to go onward without a proper rest or even a means of rations. We might as well just break here for at least a few hours before continuing onward in our journey.”

“I will be fine,” Y/N insisted, grabbing at Ignis’ wrist once more to try and shake logic into him. Ignis felt the gentle yet firm hold on him and turned to acknowledge her yet again. “I would rather you slept somewhere other than the hard ground or a car when it comes to your injuries.”

Ignis rolled his head to the side to let that substitute for him rolling his eyes as he had them closed for the time being to keep them from being in pain from the chill in the morning air. “Y/N, I told you prior, I will be fine. Do not waste your concerns on me.”

Prompto cocked his brow at the two and their conversation. For a woman who stole data from Ignis’ phone and made him furious weeks ago, they were certainly acting a lot different than he expected when meeting up with them finally. “I swear you two are like a married couple,” Prompto lightly teased with an added laugh. “Iggy will be fine here and so will I, Y/N, if it makes you feel any better hearing that from someone who has known him longer.”

Y/N blushed and looked away at the criticism, rubbing the back of her head as she tried to mutely deny that was true. In all honesty, she just wanted Ignis to be alright—repay him for the kindness he showed her. However, the fact the Lucian willingly took a blow to his side on her behalf and could have died from it was another emotion that sparked in her chest she had yet to deal with. “Well, if he at least rests a bit longer, maybe then I’ll feel at ease.”

Ignis himself had little to add to Prompto’s comment, but he didn’t seem to outwardly deny anything or show he was uneasy about his wording. “I will find rest after I’ve made breakfast, Y/N; I promise.”

She supposed she could be alright with that thought, but the Templar still sighed in annoyance at his stubborn behavior. “Fine!” she grumbled, throwing her hands up in the air. “You won’t let me ride a damn chocobo for several days because I was ‘ill and injured’ yet you’re fine to make breakfast and sleep on the damn hard ground only a mere two days after your encounter with a daemon.”

“You can be vile at me about my concerns for your health later, my dear,” smirked Ignis as he could tell she was in a mixture of anger and trying to joke about it. “For now, I will have Prompto assist me in getting everything set up for the moment till we’re ready to depart yet again.”

Y/N rolled her eyes, turning to Prompto with her hand outstretched. “It is best Sal powers down for a bit if we’re going to conserve her batter power when she’s not plugged into the car or an outlet of any sort.”

“Hu?” Forgetting for a minute Sal wasn’t really his and she belonged to the enemy in question, it was then it triggered and he hastily handed her over. “Oh! Right! Whoops!” Prompto quickly surrendered the device before hurrying towards Ignis who was already on his way to the Regalia to grab their supplies that was in the trunk.

Taking Sal back, Y/N watched as Prompto and Ignis moved out of distance of the haven and where she stood before giving her machine a funny expression. “You two have become quite close in a short amount of time.”

A question mark appeared briefly on the screen. “Why do you say that?”

“Never known you to be cooperative with anybody other than myself is why I say that,” reminded Y/N with a curious raise of her brow.

“I’ve been talking to him when feasible during the drive—we keep one another company when you and Ignis are asleep,” spoke the device in earnest, catching onto the tenor Y/N was using at her. “Besides, don’t be jealous. You and this Ignis seem to be getting along well too when I’ve been not around. If I didn’t know any better, I would think you were falling for your target.”

Y/N stiffened, huffing quickly at Sal’s remark. “He saved my life more than once, so I guess I just feel I owe him…!”

Sal seemed to laugh to herself, but the murmuring tone was high enough for Y/N to make out what she was mocking in terms of sound. “If you need me, I’ll be in rest mode.” And with that, the machine powered down of her own accord.

Blowing a sigh from the corner of her lips, Y/N sat down on the flattened surface of the haven they found themselves at.  _I am not in love with him—I am not!_  Y/N insisted to herself, her heart beating wildly at the accusation in a mixture of emotions even she had trouble with.

After Ignis had prepared breakfast and finished his portions, Y/N escorted him into the tent to let him find rest for a few hours more before heading to where Prompto was standing at the edge of the haven taking random pictures with his camera he had on his person. Turning to the sound of the Templar woman walking in his direction, the gunman put away the camera for the time being.

“Is he sleeping now?” he asked, hands upon his belt as he stood idly waiting for a response.

“He should be, or at least he  ** _better_**  be,” Y/N mumbled with a roll of her eyes in the direction of the tent. “Two days is hardly enough time for someone to heal completely after a daemon attack—he’s insane, and stubborn as hell.” She found herself a seat in one of the camping chairs, sitting lazily as it were.

Prompto laughed at Y/N’s honesty in the matter. “Yeah, well, that’s Specs for you. When he lost his sight years ago he was equally willing to put himself through a lot for our sakes. He didn’t want to leave the group, and I have to admit—I wouldn’t let him as it felt unfair to him given all he did for us back then.”

She turned to the comrade to the King of Lucis, raising her brow in doubt. “He took on daemons even freshly blind?” Y/N questioned, finding that a bit unbelievable as she couldn’t imagine such a handicap for a dangerous situation as that.

“He wanted to,” Prompto explained, sitting down near Y/N in the other camping chair that remained empty, “and while I was happy to help him, he was a bit insistent on the idea of kind of doing it alone sometimes even if I offered my help.”

“He’s just purely insane then,” she complained with a shake of her head. “He could have killed himself doing that, the idiot.”

“Prideful is another word for it, but yeah.” Prompto leaned forward on his knees with his fingertips touching each other in idle thought of how to continue the conversation with someone who was deemed a threat long ago in his mind. “So what’s the deal with you and that machine of yours—er, or ‘Sal’ as she likes to be called.”

Y/N’s brow rose. “What’s the deal with  ** _you_**  and Sal?” she questioned, finding it odd still the two seemed to be fine to work side by side whereas it took herself and Ignis awhile to get to that point.

“Hu, eh, what?” Prompto questioned, not sure where that aggressive statement was coming from after he merely asked a seemingly innocent question. “Nothing, really. It’s been nice talking to her, I guess, though a bit…weird. Never known a computer to talk back to me much unless I was in a conference call or using a voice chat messenger or something. Point is: I am used to someone actually being on the other line.”

Y/N looked away at that comment as if hurt by it though she did her best to disguise it. “I made her years ago, and she’s been my companion ever since.”

“Yeah, I could tell back in Lestallum she must have really meant something to you,” admitted Prompto in a kinder tone than when he encountered Y/N for the second time.

Her eyes lidded, looking downward at nothing in particular as her feet idly kicked about a few pebbles and things in front of her. “I was being serious when I thanked you for not destroying her when Ignis demanded you to.” Feeling his eyes on her, she turned to grant him an honest gaze in return. “I didn’t want that to be ignored through my bitching at you earlier.”

Prompto cracked a brief yet honest smile at the praise. “No problem. Thank you for, uh, not sending the information to your superiors or hurting Iggy—well, not hurting him  _intentionally_ ,” he jokingly corrected in regards to the behemoth attack.

“Har, har,” she cracked in terms of a fake laugh at his joke, crossing her arms upon her chest to keep warm in the moment. In the quietness of the waking world, Y/N frowned and thought back at Sal and everything the two of them had been through together. For whatever reason, it felt hard to be honest with Ignis in regards to her life and feelings, but this Prompto guy seemed to be far easier in some weird sense—like he had the sort of personality you felt you could tell anything to him without being judged even if he was the enemy. “I used to have a friend back in Niflheim years ago…”

Hearing the random statement, Prompto turned to Y/N and listened intently without interrupting her.

“She and I met when I was like…” Y/N paused again, moving her mouth to the side to try and remember the year exactly. “…by the gods, I want to say I was like twelve or something, but anyway—we kind of grew up side by side. She was always there for me and did everything she could to just make me into a better person and not be afraid of this crazy world.” Closing her eyes tightly, Y/N bit at her lower lip that threatened to tremble. “She fell protecting me when a horde of daemons attacked just outside of Niflheim, and so I kind of spent my time making and perfecting Sal afterward in my depressed and lonely state that followed…”

Prompto’s eyes lidded in understanding, twisting his mouth to the side in a sense of remorse. “I’m-I’m sorry.” Thinking of how he nearly lost Noctis, he closed his eyes tightly to combat the pain in that memory. “Nobody should be so cruelly separated from someone who made a difference in their life.”

“I swear, I would have loved her more than my own husband she meant so much to me,” Y/N continued, her hands clutched together upon her lap in time as she restrained her emotions. “It wasn’t the assassins, it wasn’t the Lucians, and it wasn’t my own people who took her from me…but the damn daemons. They are the worst enemies in my mind.”

Again, Prompto gazed away at nothing in particular before looking back at Y/N once more as if to debate something. A heavy sigh escaped his nostrils as he bundled up what courage he had to speak. “I’m originally from Niflheim myself,” he confessed, making Y/N turn to look at him quickly in the moment.

“You…You’re a fellow Niff…?” Y/N asked, wiping just under her eyes to be done with the tears that threatened to blur her vision. “How is that possible with you working under the Lucian King?”

“Noct’s not like that,” Prompto expressed in his friend’s defense as he could sense that Y/N was insisting it was impossible based on Lucis and Niflheim being at constant war with one another and how Lucians responded to Niffs even at the best of times and vise versa. “He and the others know what I am, but they’re not prejudice. I mean, I am not…” His words froze in his throat as Prompto gazed down at his open palms before his fingers curled inward in a fist of resentment. “…I don’t even feel real sometimes…but they treat me like I am and like I mean something to them.”

Y/N gave him a funny look, not sure what he meant by that. Her fingers idly tapped against the back of her hands as they remained clasped in her lap. Before Prompto could hope to explain himself, the two of them heard Ignis in discomfort within the tent not far away. Taking to her feet in a hurry, Y/N waved at Prompto as she hurried forward. “I got this…!”

Admittedly, she just wanted an excuse to escape her emotions that were boiling up inside of her and try to hope that giving this Prompto the information that she had wouldn’t come back to haunt her somehow.

Throwing open the flap of the tent and making her way inside, Y/N noticed Ignis was sitting upright with his hand upon his wounded side. “Ignis…!” she cried in concern, hurrying beside him to try and calm him. “What’s wrong? Do you need a potion or something?”

Ignis cringed, hissing in displeasure even if by this point it oddly sounded forced the more Y/N listened to it. “I-I’m fine,” he grunted, removing his hand from the injury as Y/N was trying to pry his touch away from it so she could remove his shirt to get a better look at it. “It was merely acting out of sorts a moment ago…!”

Y/N’s fingers nimbly worked away at Ignis’ shirt to expose the bandaged side to see that the wrappings were blooded a bit but not any worse than when she last saw them. “It seems okay visually to me, Ignis,” she commented, placing her hand upon his chest to steady him. “Is it hurting you badly?” The Templar witnessed as Ignis hissed through his clenched teeth and threatened to turn from her. “Answer me, you stubborn mule,” Y/N ordered with a narrowing of her eyes at his behavior.

Ignis looked in her direction with a frustrated frown that she never thought he would give. Had he been angered by her choice of words? “I told you, it is fine, Y/N. It was merely flaring up a moment ago.”

Y/N’s fingers retracted from the injury upon hearing his heated response. “Okay…sorry…” She gazed upward at him, noticing how furious he seemed to be. What was bothering him? He was acting like he was mad about something, but Y/N was scared to outright ask what it was about. “Did you want me to change your bandages or something…?”

It was shortly after her nervous question that Ignis sighed out his hostility to the best of his ability. “If you wish,” he murmured between them. “As long as I am not interrupting anything between you and Prompto.”

The comment sounded spiteful and Y/N couldn’t help but feel offended in the matter as she was already searching through their belongings for their medical supplies. “And what are you implying with that tone?” she asked boldly, finding the bandages she needed and the empty container to fill with some of the bottled water they bought.

“Merely didn’t wish to intrude on your private conversation,” Ignis continued, apparently doing his best to bite back the bile in his words.

“You mean the conversation you’re obviously eavesdropping on anyways?” Y/N commented, a bit embarrassed and upset at that thought as those words were meant for Prompto for the time being and not for Ignis. She felt she would tell him when she was ready.

“It was not my intention, Y/N. The ground carries all sort of sounds and vibrations rather well, and that includes conversation,” spoke Ignis firmly in the matter though it was still obvious he was upset about something. As he felt her begin to unwrap the blooded bandages, he cringed only for a moment as the fabric loosened about him and allowed the wound to breathe. “There are some things even I cannot blot out even if I so desired to.”

Y/N could still sense the exasperation in his tone and feel it in his body language. “Why are you so mad at me? I am just talking and being civil to your friend!” When Ignis threatened to turn away, Y/N got closer to him to let the harshness of her own voice carry. “I thought you would be happy with this outcome so we’re not tearing each other apart while looking for your other friends!”

Ignis hissed again, shaking his head as if to be rid of his own inner emotions about the situation. “Do not fret about it right now, Y/N,” he insisted in a steady and calm tone to try and disguise his upset in the matter. “Just…handle the injury, and we will be on our way in time to the next location.”

“Fine…” Y/N muttered, cleaning the wound as she was instructed on how to do so though still a bit upset at Ignis’ uncalled for response to what she deemed an innocent conversation with Prompto.


	8. Chapter 8

The road ahead was a bit of an uncomfortable one for Y/N as she kept to the opposite side of the Regalia away from Ignis who was still frustrated with her about something she couldn’t quite put her hand on. The only thing that truly kept the car alive with conversation was the talking back and forth Sal and Prompto did on occasion, and while it sometimes annoyed and upset her that someone else had her device’s attention, Y/N was still fuming quietly over Ignis’ inexcusable anger at her.

On occasion, Y/N would look over at Ignis who was merely sitting there at the opposite end of the backseat staring at nothing in particular—merely taking in the sounds of the car, it seemed, with his fists resting on the middle of his thighs. A part of her was boiling up with the urge to ask why he was being such a jerk, but on the other, Y/N was fine to be spiteful and remain silent to the blind man.

“You said you take pictures with a camera?” Sal commented to Prompto, bringing Y/N back to the two’s conversation for a moment.

“It is the only way to take pictures mostly, so yeah,” joked the gunman at the computer’s question.

“Sarcastic joke noted.” Sal was merely teasing in return as she acknowledged Prompto was just poking fun at her choice of wording. “I was merely curious at looking at some of them.”

Prompto was confused as he wasn’t sure how a computer could even do that unless he just installed some on her hard drive. Turning to Y/N, he gave her a curious expression that asked how that was to be possible for Sal to do.

Y/N sighed, waving away his look. “You can use the extra USB port in her side compartment to upload them to her, and she can look through them that way.” She went to gazing back outside at the dreary weather that decided to return it seemed, not wanting to add more to the conversation that was going on at the current time as she was still agitated at Ignis.

Since it was just his camera and not his phone, Prompto had no problem grabbing his cable to connect the two together after unearthing his camera to let Sal upload a few of them onto her hard drive upon finding the USB port Y/N mentioned. As she processed the incoming data, the device seemingly went silent until a hum resonated in the air.

“They are very charming pictures, Prompto,” complimented Sal with as much honesty and praise her vocal range could manage.

“Uh, thanks,” responded Prompto with a shy rub to the back of his head at the compliment. He was still a bit uncertain how a computer could truly see anything in regards to pictures, but he didn’t question it. “If you wanted to keep some of them you’re welcome to.”

“How much longer till we’re there?” Y/N groaned, slumping a bit down in her seat with a groan to match her discomfort in being in the car for so long.

“Shouldn’t be much longer now,” responded Ignis with a rather dull tone, shifting in place to get comfortable as he always felt a bit cramped in the backseat from time to time since he couldn’t fix the seat in question to accommodate his longer legs.

“Nearly there indeed,” answered Sal to Y/N’s question as she compiled the information she needed. “I would say…less than twenty minutes and counting by now.” It was then she turned her attention back to Prompto’s pictures and the sound of a humming smile could be heard vibrating in her vocal range. “I thank you, Prompto. I will treasure them and use one for my main background.”

Y/N rolled her eyes when she heard Prompto chuckle a bit at the remark.  _Stop romancing my device, dammit_ , she thought to herself, covering her face with a soft sigh at the uncomfortable situation. Maybe it was because Sal never had much interaction with others outside of herself, but it was weird knowing the machine was growing this odd attachment to the enemy.

Upon arriving at the Coernix Station in Cauthess, the group took to the caravan to set down for the day as it was slowly coming to an end. On their way, they checked what havens and power sources they were able but to no avail when it came to the lost comrades of Ignis and Prompto.

“Anything on your phone, Prompto?” Ignis asked as he was checking his own with a text to speech app he had installed that told him the last received messages he had from Noctis and Gladiolus.

“Nada,” he sighed, checking everything he could including his emails just in case something perhaps was put there. “Now I’m beginning to worry just a bit” Prompto tried to laugh off his concerns as he put away his phone back in his pant’s pocket. “Y/N, do you know if the Empire has them…?”

Y/N noticed how Ignis even seemed to move his lower lip inward and tilt his head in her direction as if to accuse her of withholding information. Though honestly she couldn’t be too sure what the expression was supposed to mean other than he wasn’t pleased still with her. “I don’t have a cell or anything like that, so Sal kind of acts as my phone and computer all in one,” the Templar explained when all eyes were on her. “If they had anything to relay to me, they would have done so by now.” She sighed, looking off to the side with a shrug. “I kind of think they just assumed I died and don’t care to even bother given how useless they feel I am.”

“So a search party could be out for you then?” Ignis questioned with a raise of his brow.

She shrugged yet again, slapping her hands to her sides. “I- _maybe_ -I don’t know, Ignis,” Y/N responded with irritation in her tone as she could tell his own was hinting they all might be in danger if that were the case. “I feel if that too were the case they would have found me by now as Sal has hardware that can be tracked since it belongs to Niflheim.”

“It still doesn’t excuse the thought they could be in the Empire’s hands,” said Ignis regrettably, hand to his lips to ponder a course of action. “We best head to Niflheim and be certain even if the journey there is long…”

“Wha…just…the two of us?” Prompto asked, raising a brow to that idea as it sounded like suicide to him.

“Unless you two have a decent course of action, this is asinine,” Sal chastised vocally. “Not only would it take nearly a month to get there, we have no guarantee they’re being held there for one, and for another, it may be too late should it even be—.”

“—I will not accept that!” Ignis interrupted with a loud tone that rattled even Prompto when the advisor spoke with such anger lying to rest on the foundation of his speech. The man’s hands clenched to his sides, the sound of leather stretching with such aggression that the noise made even Y/N back up and away from him. “Even at my last breath, I will continue to uphold my oath to him.” Ignis’ voice was quiet but still firm with dissatisfaction in the matter.

“Niflheim only wants Noct for the ring and it’s powers, right?” Prompto interjected quickly, hoping to settle the tension rising in the air.

“From what I gather that is and has always been the plan—that and taking down Insomnia again if possible before moving to other parts of Eos to take each location under a firm Imperial grasp seeing as our holding on even Tenebrae loosened since that war a few years ago against them where they kind of claimed their independence,” Y/N explained without hesitation, gesturing at nothing in particular as she spoke.

“Then, Noct should still be alive!” exclaimed the gunman with hope. “Without him, they cannot find a means to control that ring no matter what!”

“We’ll pray Gladio is safe in the process of this,” Ignis murmured dejectedly, his head lowered under the weight of fear that was now pressing upon him like a needy child.

Hearing and feeling the heavy upset swallowing the room, Y/N looked over at Sal who was being held by Prompto currently. Her lips moved inward in a sort of means to plot her own course of action in all of this. She didn’t want to do it…but if it meant she could get to Niflheim faster than them to scope it out, then Y/N knew what she had to do.

Settling down for the evening to eat the meal Ignis had prepared, Y/N hardly the stomach to even bother as she felt full already with so many thoughts bombarding her. Her spoon tapping idly upon the plate, she hadn’t even noticed what she was doing until Ignis called her out in the matter.

“Y/N,” he scolded after swallowing a portion of his meal. “Stop fidgeting and eat, please.”

“Sorry,” she sighed, trying to focus on the thought but her body tensed and her stomach rejected the very idea much to her dismay. Noticing that Prompto was already done, Y/N looked over to spy him playing some sort of game on his phone. It wasn’t exactly a pastime she thought the Crownsguard would be keen to. “What exactly are you playing?”

“King’s Knight,” Prompto answered quickly but quieted his enthusiasm shortly after when he knew it wasn’t exactly the best time for it. “Y-Ya know, to kind of take the edge off and all.”

“A video game of sorts?” Sal questioned as she couldn’t understand what it was Prompto was doing without it being through her or for her to hear.

“Yeah, a mobile game,” answered the bright-blond hunter assassin as he reclined back in the seat he was in.

Y/N watched as Ignis took to his feet after finishing his meal, moving to the sink to do away with the dishes and everything that needed doing for the moment. She could tell he was still in his own world and annoyed with her, frustrating Y/N as she wanted to help him during the time he was fretting over his friends.

Sal hummed to the best of her ability in thought (or perhaps interest). “Afraid I cannot watch you play as this, but…” Her screen began to change from her voice module to that of a few random pieces of data she had encrypted and coded herself from what Y/N could gather given where Sal was resting on the center table in the middle of the caravan. She had never seen the lines of code before, making Y/N confused and a bit curious what Sal was planning until the machine began to project lines of artificial light in the room to where it accumulated into an all too familiar hologram form in that made Y/N go pale.

The long, wavy red haired woman with sky-blue eyes moved in a way that made her almost seem more than a hologram. The paladin looking armor she wore very much a reminder to Y/N that made her nauseous at the sight as Sal moved the holographic projection closer to Prompto with her arms behind her back as if to be playful and flirtatious. “Maybe I can as this?”

The voice sounding less weighed down by the vocal restrictions and ranges the actual machine had made Y/N shoot to her feet, dropping the plate in her possession and causing the food to scatter on the floor before backing up into Ignis who wasn’t as far away as she expected he’d be.

“Y/N!” Ignis scolded, not certain what had happened or startled her so badly though was quick to grab just under her arms to prevent her falling completely to the floor. “What are you—!” The advisor paused in his lecture, feeling as Y/N was actually trembling against his hold as fright tightened its claws upon her.

“I, uh, guess she’s never done this?” Prompto questioned, noting how pale Y/N looked and how frantic she was acting so suddenly. His eyes looked up at the projection, granting a half smile to the attempt to join him in the world before looking with apprehension back over at the Templar. “Is it something to be concerned over?”

“N-No, no…!” Y/N stuttered, taking to her feet regardless of how wobbly she felt. If Ignis hadn’t been keeping her firmly upright, she would have been on the floor of the caravan by now, but she felt the strength of the advisor urge her to stand. “She never has, and it’s not a concern but…!” Not sure where to even start as the room felt like the oxygen was thinning—making Y/N feel as though she were being strangled—she took to her feet and hurried out of the caravan to escape the sight no matter where her legs would lead her.

“Y/N…!” Sal spoke, her projected self image reaching for the door but stopping when she knew the image of herself would easily disappear if she dared to head outside.

It was the closest haven for the time being given it was night, and without a second thought in the matter, Y/N opened the door to the backseat of the Regalia and moved to the far side of the car with her knees to her chest and her arms embracing herself with a quivering cry at the sight that began to haunt her. “Why did she do that…! Why!” she whispered to herself in pain, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Gods, why did I program her that way…!”

The sound of the car’s door opening caught her attention, Y/N raising her head off of her knees when she tried to quietly get out her emotions in private only to feel her chest tighten all the more when she noticed it was Ignis.

“Don’t come here if all you’re going to do is yell at me, Ignis! I am not in the mood for it!” Y/N exclaimed in a trembling upset tone, her back pressing against the door behind her only to be told that was as far as she could go.

“I am not,” spoke Ignis calmly as he shut the door on his side before venturing closer to where he could hear Y/N sobbing. “What happened in there…?”

His voice was a lot less aggressive and more tender and caring this round, causing Y/N to try and recollect herself as she wiped her tears away to the best of her ability. “Sal made a hologram of herself…” Y/N nearly muffled but apparently Ignis heard her just fine. “She’s never done that before, and that’s fine, but the projection she made was…!” Wiping at her eyes as the tears refused to stop, the Templar was aware that dodging away from the truth was nearly impossible at this point. “How much…How much did you hear back at the haven when I was talking to Prompto about my old friend in Niflheim…?”

Ignis’ frown loosened into something a bit more sympathetic as his head tilted off to the side, a small sigh of regret escaping him. “Pretty much all of it, I regret to say,” spoke the advisor without restraint. “And I was mildly irate that…someone such as Prompto got to be allowed such secrets, but I was refused any of it in the most malicious of ways when I assumed I earned your trust in these past few days.”

Y/N’s brow furrowed, her fingers clenching tightly onto her wrist that she used to loop her legs near her chest. “Prompto just…he has some sort of feeling about him where I just couldn’t stop myself.” She closed her eyes tightly as if to swallow her lament. “I didn’t think doing that would hurt you in any way. I didn’t think you cared so much, really.”

“What about your friend back in Niflheim?” Ignis asked, dodging away from the remark for the time being.

Y/N’s head lowered as she felt her heart hang heavy in her chest. “Her name was Sulista, but I used to call her Sal Gal as a fun nickname since we were kids.” The Templar’s lips thinned in regret, her body feeling nauseous. “When she died protecting me, I just…I went crazy…” The tears were silently rolling down Y/N’s cheeks at this point to where she could taste them but even their salty essence did little to deter her speech. “I refused to let her leave me, so when I created the machine I was working on to make data extracting and hacking into databases easier, I decided…” Y/N stalled, her lower lip quivering in hesitation to even form the other words. “…to put Sulista into it…”

Ignis’ lower lip moved as a small gasp of a breath fled from his chest at realizing what the machine meant so much to her.

“I uploaded a lot of her personal information into Sal even from gathering data from parts of her brain when she was deceased, used voice messages on my phone as a means to make the mocking vocal range close to near identical to Sulista’s, and when my device was complete and able to talk to me and act as though we were fine and nothing had truly changed between us…I felt like I trapped her inside this machine where she didn’t want to be,” explained Y/N as she bit at her lower lip to prevent it from quaking in regret. “I-I know it’s just a computer I made and that’s not Sulista in there truly, but the way she acts and the way she responds to things…it makes me feel like she really is. Like I captured her, and because of my selfish desires to keep her close, I cannot bear the thought of her dying on me again even if it means to set her free.”

“So that explains why you’re so close to her, and why she acts so human like,” spoke Ignis through Y/N’s quivering confession.

“By the gods, I didn’t mean to do it…!” Y/N confessed, grabbing at the sides of her head as she regretted what she had done. She shook her head, nails digging into her scalp as if to make herself repent. “I didn’t mean to do that to her! She didn’t have to die on my account and then be locked up in this horrific prison I built for her!  ** _I_**  should have died! I deserved it!”

Ignis’ brow furrowed as he escorted Y/N closer to his arms to try and calm her. His hold was sympathetic and all too distant a memory for Y/N to even recall properly when it came to anybody embracing her in such a way. Wrapping her arms around him in return, she sobbed against his chest while quivering uncontrollably.

“You were in an inconsolable state, my dear,” whispered Ignis as a reminder, his words vibrating against Y/N’s ear as she rested near his chest. “Sulista is gone, and Sal is not her. You made a clone that is its own person.” Moving Y/N back a bit, Ignis found where her chin was to try and usher her sights to his misty eyes that blankly gazed in her direction. “I am not saying Sal doesn’t have emotions, needs, and desires, but she is not your friend. She passed away protecting you as I am sure you were all that mattered to her; and with that, you should not let her sacrifice ever be in vain.”

“She was the only one who loved me,” Y/N pathetically whispered in regret, her tears cascading down her cheeks and even dampening Ignis’ touch upon her.

Hearing her say such a thing with such sorrow to her tone, Ignis shook his head to refuse that to be truthful. Beckoning to the warm breath he could feel emanating from Y/N, the advisor moved to action as he always did and took care of the situation—kissing her without an excuse to barricade as to why he acted as he did.

Y/N’s eyes widened as her heart filled with life once more within her body at the single, loving act. Lidding her sight shortly after, she fell into the foreign performance as the warmth of the advisor’s breath continued to revive her to the point Y/N fell to his gracious ways and placed her hands upon either side of his face to urge it onward. When she pulled back from the kiss, her lips trembled before a harsh, quivering gasp burst forth from her, but it was one of a laughing sob—as if to express her relief in the moment. Her fingers found the dusty-blond strands of Ignis’ hair as she pet the very back part nearest his neck, resting her forehead against his.

“Thank you,” she whimpered, tears continuing to lay their mark upon her features, “for everything you’ve done…”

Ignis’ fingertips touched upon Y/N’s cheek in kind to aid her in being rid of the salty tears. “If you’d permit me, Y/N…I must confess that I’ve never had the pleasure of ‘seeing’ you.”

The Templar woman wasn’t sure if he was joking at first given the circumstances. “Wha-What do you mean?” she asked, sniffling back her sinuses as her palms worked away the remainder of the tears upon her face.

“I see with my hands as you’d imagine,” commented Ignis, his palms resting on her cheeks to comfort her further but prepare for the act should she consent to it. “I’ve never done it upon our encounter as I deemed it unimportant at the time, but also, I knew it wasn’t my business to do such a thing without your word.” His brow creased curiously. “May I have the honor of doing so now?”

“I-I…If you wish to,” Y/N stuttered, not sure how this would go as she never had anybody explore her in such a fashion.

“I will be gentle,” Ignis promised, his thumbs moving in unison as they fondled just under her eyes and towards the slope of her nose. His misty eyes stared straight ahead as he inwardly conjured up a picture of how Y/N truly looked like in his mind with his hands acting as the paintbrushes to his mental canvas. His fingertips began to steadily move to her forehead, then to her hairline and figuring out how long and the texture of her tresses truly were as his index and thumb fingers worked together to lightly massage the strands till they fell from his grasp.

When his touch turned to her ears, Y/N found them drifting down her jaw line and soon to her lips. The oral barrier opened just slightly at his tender caress, letting him feel from the center that she had indeed opened her mouth at his touch to which prompted him to follow the width of it to the corners of her mouth. Y/N found it within herself to place her own palm upon Ignis’ wrist, moving it down the length of his arm to his elbow and back again to usher his hand on her cheek at the very least.

Ignis froze when she did such a thing, expecting he had done something wrong, but upon feeling it was merely Y/N’s own means to guide his touch to a place more preferable, he relented and let his thumb steadily shift back and forth upon her skin. “You are beautiful, Y/N,” the advisor confessed in the quiet of the car’s backseat.

A blush rising against his touch, Y/N felt his weight upon her a bit more dominantly than before and her heart rapidly thumped in her chest. “I…I’ve never done this before…” she commented in regards to connecting with each other a bit more intimately.

“Then we learn together,” whispered Ignis as he kissed the corner of her lips. “If you desire to, that is.”

“B-But your side,” Y/N reminded him in concern and a means to stall just a moment longer to be certain that was what she would want. “I don’t want you to hurt yourself again just because of what I may want!”

Ignis turned at her acknowledgment of it, merely placing his palm where the wound hid under his clothing. “The pain should actually subside if I focus my mind and body on something far more pleasant, but yes—I cannot be vigorous.”

Her touch graced his cheeks once more, stealing a kiss from Ignis that he was unprepared for in the moment but eventually reacted before Y/N had a moment to pull away. Noticing his scars upon his face, she let her index and middle finger find delight there upon the massive one over his eye before replacing it with a tender kiss. She witnessed as Ignis closed his eye upon the warmth of her breath being so close as well as her mouth. As she kissed the space affectionately, the tactician moved his arms about her as a smile tugged the corners of his lips. Noting that he had shut his eye for a bit, Y/N retreated just a portion of the way. “It doesn’t hurt when I do that, does it?”

“It’s a years old wound,” reminded Ignis kindly as he reopened the eye to let the blank look of it gloss over her. “While it has its residual pains now and again, it does not hurt under your loving administrations, no.” He tilted his head to the side, continuing to smile. “Only if you were to intentionally breathe on my eye would it perhaps. How does it look, by the way?”

“Do you want me to trace the scar for you?” Y/N asked, moving her thumb just under his eye. “It honestly just looks like you got in a fight as any other warrior out there with battle scars. It isn’t ugly or anything…” She smiled ever slightly. “After your story as to why you have it, it shows how truly lucky you are and that…I am glad it was merely your eyes taken from you and nothing worse.” Y/N planted a tender peck upon the side of his nose. “If anything, you still look beautiful.”

A burst of a laugh escaped Ignis at her choice of words. “‘Beautiful’? Never been called that before, and no, you don’t have to go through the trouble of outlining the scar. I prefer to be blissfully clueless on how appalling it is.”

Y/N gave a mocking frown at his comment. “Well, I think it suits you better than ‘handsome’, and the scar is not that bad.” Her hands went then to his attire, working on removing it for him to where his bandaged torso was shown there in the dim lighting of the backseat of the car and what filtered lighting the rest stop could grant as well. She had aided him in undressing and bandaging him so her touch was merely that of duty in the past few days—when her palm graced his exposed chest again, Ignis acknowledged it was more of love and admiration that excited a quiet gasp of delight, his fingers coiling about her exploring hand’s wrist to let her do as she pleased but with his own guidance as well in the matter. When her fingers halted at his belt, Y/N’s fingers retracted in a desire to do more but also fear holding her back.

Perhaps Ignis could feel her hesitation, and it was in the moment he took her curious touch and placed it upon his lips to kiss her before his own fingers began to work in unison in exploring her body and removing her clothing. “My turn, and I regret to inform you that I will take a bit longer to explore you, my dear,” he whispered, keeping the sensual secret between them.

Y/N hardly had any complaints in the matter as she’d rather gather her courage than lose it right away. When her clothes fell to the side upon the floorboards of the Regalia, she was hardly worried of what he would think given the hindrances he had going into ‘viewing’ her. Y/N never realized how relaxing it was to truly be touched and loved by someone blind as it felt like there was less to be judged about. Still, his very touch that migrating from her chin, down her neck and then to her breasts made Y/N arch and quiver in a delighted inhale of euphoria.

He could sense her heart—heard it beating wildly by now to the point Ignis’ erotic touch took its detour to the spot to caress it in kind. “Are you alright?” he questioned given how loud the sound was and how powerful it was now drumming against his palm. His head bowed slightly, eyes drifting away as he took in its melody to perhaps grow familiar to it. “Did you want me to continue, Y/N? Need I remind you, this isn’t a necessity—merely a desire on my behalf and yours as well, I pray.”

Her breathing heavy and fixated on his touch, Y/N nodded at his question. “I-I’m fine…J-Just new to the idea of being touched as this.”

“Indeed,” he spoke in kind, removing his fingertips from her beating heart to let them rest there upon her breasts once more. “Just let me know when you wish me to cease.”

Again, the length of his fingers continued to take in every bit of her. Both working in poetic unison to continue filling out the picture he had for Y/N in regards to her body. He was kind when he rested his touch upon her erect nipples, middle, ring and pinky fingers taking to the side of her breasts to urge them more inward to enjoy in their fullness while his thumbs continued to arouse and excite the fire flower building within Y/N’s stomach. Leaning forward in time (after situating his legs a bit given his limitations being in the Regalia), Ignis found the sensitive flesh with the flat of his tongue, his hands going to her sides to keep her steady in his grasp as he felt her quivering all the more under him.

“I-Ignis…!” Y/N gasped as she moved into the act on fluid impulse, her fingers digging into his golden, brown hair to urge him onward as his moans vibrated pleasantly against her skin when the dampness of the strong muscle flicked against her erect nipple.

His right hand migrating down the length of her, he began to steadily pet her outer left thigh as his lips continued to work with her chest to excite her onward. When he turned his attention to something else, halting the progress he was making, it brought Y/N back to herself from the sexual high she was enjoying.

“Wh-Why did you stop?” Y/N asked, her fingers continuing to move and sweetly massage his scalp.

“I’ve just never had that aroma near me before,” he commented vaguely at first as he moved his hand more inward to her inner thigh. “It’s quite strong.” Ignis’ fingers soon laid their focus upon the wet flower of Y/N’s entrance to excite it into blooming a bit more for him and to see if that was the cause of where the intoxicating fragrance was beckoning him from.

Y/N’s cries escaladed as she wanted to grab his wrist and urge him further inside of her given the demanding want of her body he aroused into a fire of excitement. “By the gods, you’re torturing me…!” she exclaimed, bringing her balled up fist close to her mouth as if to quiet herself as she kind of forgot where they were in the moment.

“All things worth the wait are indeed so,” Ignis teased though his own breath was labored in weighed euphoria he never had the pleasure of truly experiencing. To be certain his nose wasn’t just messing with him, Ignis pushed his middle finger inside of Y/N slowly to feel how lubricated she was in wait for him. As her body shivered and even tried to impale on his touch, he used his other hand to steady her for the time being to let her adjust at a slower and patient pace. So as not to be crude, he removed the essence on his fingers by merely rubbing them together to do so. Finding foundation upon one knee on the Regalia’s seat, Ignis worked on unfastening his belt to free himself of the painful erection he had kept out of view the entire time.

Hearing the belt buckle tap about as he loosened it, Y/N watched with anxiety and want in unison as the man of the Crownsguard finally freed himself. Her lips thinned in uncertainty if she could even handle him. When his hands came upon her legs once more to move her towards him, Ignis apparently felt her stiffen and he voiced his concerns.

“Are you alright? Not too startling for you, is it?” His brow wrinkled in worry of what could be causing her form to tighten up as if to reject him.

Y/N’s lower lip trembled a bit as she fought with herself on what to say. He was average in size, but to her, he seemed bigger given how small she knew she was in comparison to him. “Just don’t know how we’re going to… ‘connect’, really…without it being painful for me, that is.”

“Your body will amaze you,” soothed Ignis as he stroked her thigh reassuringly. “Did you want to guide me? I will go at your pacing.”

Hesitantly, Y/N reached for his erection but when Ignis felt her stalling for far too long, he took to her wrist and ushered her to his swollen manhood to let her know it was fine, and it wasn’t uncomfortable for him. A gasping moan of delight even surfaced from his lips as he moved into her touch, not used to a warm, foreign caress to be upon the sensitive organ as it were. His thighs even flexed as Ignis fought with the urge to just move forward in the warmth of her hold.

Biting at her lower lip and gaining the courage she needed through the encouraging of her own arousal, Y/N guided the head of his cock to the kiss of her entrance before allowing him to take it from there. In perfect unison, Ignis’ touch shifted from her knees down to the bend in her thighs where he kept a firm grasp on her. Much to his effort, he kept his animalistic desires at bay and pushed at a slow and steady pace with a laborious moan, which escaped his lips on occasion when he did so.

While painful at first, Y/N knew if she could handle a daemon attack, she could handle anything. Her pain hissing through her teeth in a sharp breath, she adjusted to his size as the discomfort soon blossomed in a want for Ignis to go deeper. “O-Oh, gods…!” she praised, rolling her head back on the cushioned seat as her breath caught in the air at their perfect union with Ignis’ thighs resting against the back of hers to let Y/N be aware he was buried completely for a moment before he pulled back to let her breathe, pushing back in once more steadily yet again to repeat the process.

The mere hum of leather noisily shifting to their needs underneath their actions was replaced with the lewd squelch of a sound to express Y/N’s lubrication every time Ignis moved upon her body. As he continued the poetic act, urging further dampness from Y/N at his tender movements, one of Ignis’ hands discovered the length of her yet again as it found its journey coming upon her own touch in time. When her fingers intertwined within his, he brought her knuckles to his lips to kiss her there in a mute means to praise her during the euphoria budding within them both.

Y/N attempted to touch upon the corner of his mouth, but soon the sensation began to reach an un-ignorable highpoint to where her fingers recoiled and she cried out in warning as did her own walls give a notice squeeze upon the intruding length.

She didn’t even have to express her warning—in the moment, Ignis just knew. Removing her hand from his own, he hastily located her back and brought her in close to him as if to embrace her. “Go on, then,” he whispered in a labored tone, his body rolling forward to encourage the thought to where their bodies pressed against each other time and time again when he did so.

Wrapping her arms tightly about Ignis’ balmy form, she bit at her lower lip as she budding sensation finally released like that of the flow of water being pent up for far too long and finally having salvation in its blissful freedom. Her attempt to speak his name shot forth in a single, strangled cry as her fingers pricked at his bare back at the all too alien blanket of warmth and delight only to find another budding warmness to sooth her when Ignis came within her. It was such a forceful response that Y/N didn’t register right away what was going on till the milky white seed began to sooth its aggression to a near stop.

Her breath shaking hotly and steadily near Ignis’ ear unintentionally made the blind man find that equally arousing to where he almost faltered under the need for more, but he fought the temptation to let this be it for the time being. He turned, kissing the warmth of her cheek as he moved his palm up and down upon her back to calm her from the aftermath that Y/N was still adjusting to. With her nose burying in the nook of his neck, Ignis did the same in kind but not without at least leaving his tender mark with a loving kiss in turn and a gentle nibble upon her exposed skin.

“I love you, Y/N,” Ignis whispered against her collar as he continued to remain intertwined with the woman he once saw as his mortal enemy.

The urge to cry again in happiness pricked at the corners of Y/N’s eyes as she tightened her hold on the advisor to the King of Lucis. “And I love you, Ignis…so much,” she responded, tone shaky at the honesty that took her in a firm hold in the moment.


	9. Chapter 9

It was another early rise that Y/N could hardly say she wanted to accept, but knowing what could be at risk for Ignis and Prompto, she found her feet as quickly as she was able when waking in the caravan hours later. Ignis knew sleeping in the car as they were would not only pose a problem in terms of his injury but any eyes that may stumble upon them, so he insisted on redressing and relocating after the two enjoyed several moments in one another’s embrace in the aftermath of their confession.

“Everything in order?” Ignis asked after he gathered his own belongings in terms of potions and the like for their journey and stuffed them away in his pockets while the others found rest in a duffle bag he carried with him on occasion that mostly had its place in the Regalia or in the tent.

“Seems it,” responded Prompto, his hands laying to rest upon his belt in an idle manner as he noted Y/N taking to Sal to be certain she had charged properly.

“Brilliant,” said the advisor with much relief as he wished to depart as soon as possible. “We make for Galdin Quay and commandeer a vessel to continue our journey towards the Empire then. Gralea seems the best choice in terms of where to begin looking.” His voice seemed to harden, frown stern with the idea of business at the very thought they could truly have King Noctis. Ignis motioned to where he could sense Y/N moving about. “Be certain you have what you need, my dear.” She turned to him upon hearing the advisor speak in kind to her, holding Sal close to her chest. “I would prefer we make minimal stops along the way, but I know some will be necessary in terms of regaining our strength for whatever battle is to come.”

“O-Of course,” Y/N muttered, heading towards the exit of the caravan after Ignis only to have her shoulder gently grabbed by Prompto to show he wanted her attention real fast.

“Hey, umm, about last night regarding Sal…” began Prompto with a nervous laugh, his arms crossed upon his chest. “She didn’t mean to upset you or anything when she did that hologram—I mean, well…that’s what she told me before she shut herself down to kind of think things over.”

Y/N looked down and away with a lopsided frown that lasted only a moment when she thought of her time with Ignis in private in regards to what was healed instead of harmed. “I know,” she whispered as a response. Her eyes closed tightly to blot out the idea of crying over being reminded of her fallen friend. “Sal was…she was programmed to be someone else, and that image that she produced was just very shocking.” Fingers digging against the nape of her neck to take care of a risen itch of embarrassment in the matter, Y/N straightened herself out. “But it is my fault, and it is my burden I have to adjust to since she’s never truly done that sort of thing before—not even to me, her own friend, so I guess she has some sort of weird attachment to you, Prompto. I am to assume she may try to do it once more to converse with you.” Again, Y/N sighed as she looked at her companion and reluctantly handed her over to Prompto. “Here…”

Prompto’s blue eyes widened ever so slightly as he accepted Sal from the Niff’s grasp, a confused noise sputtering past his lips as his hands clasped upon the device.

“I’m your captive, remember?” Y/N pointed out with a smile with a meaning to find peace between him and Ignis given past events. “Shouldn’t you or Ignis be the one carrying Sal around instead of me? She has your King’s information on her anyways.” She laughed it off quietly and with a form of lighthearted sarcasm, hands resting upon her hips as she rolled her head to the side. “While you cannot access her information without my passkey, I still feel she’s better suited in your hands.”

“She did mention she wanted you to be the next one she spoke to whenever given a moment to do so,” insisted Prompto with a shrug of his brow. “Obviously, Iggy isn’t going to let us do that just now, so I guess upon our next rest stop at Galdin Quay you can do that a bit better there.”

Y/N smiled a bit broader, nodding at the fellow Niff’s words. “In the meantime, just take good care of her for me, yeah?”

“Prompto! Y/N! Let’s get on with it, shall we?” Ignis shouted from beside the Regalia.

“Oh, uh—be right there!” Prompto called back before turning to Y/N once more. “I’ll make sure nothing happens to her, but…” He paused, his eyes looking from Ignis back to her. “…if you cared for him, you would delete the data you have.”

Y/N swallowed harshly, trying to deny the idea was true though a feverish blush rose to her cheeks at the very plaguing thought Prompto might have overseen or heard something last night given his words. “I-I…Prompto, I just can’t with that right now…” She bit at her lower lip, her body tensing as her private plan from yesterday bubbled within her. “I’ll need it to be allowed into Gralea in one piece, and I want that to remain an idea for painless entry into the city on our side if all else fails.”

Prompto’s body stiffened all the same, a frown that had a mixed meaning expressed to the Templar before him. A part of him almost wanted to say he didn’t trust her, but given what he saw and felt in the past day with his sworn enemy, the hunter assassin found himself swallowing those words though remaining on guard. “Alright. I’ll, uh…I’ll believe you,” he spoke with a lack of enthusiasm as he wasn’t sure what to feel in the situation, but didn’t wish to keep Ignis waiting a moment longer as he hurried out towards the Regalia with Y/N at his side.

Y/N continued to mentally map out her plan of getting into the Empire unharmed unbeknownst to the rest of the group as they traveled onward to Galdin Quay. Her fingers curled upon her lap as she could only imagine what her superior would say to her being silent all this time, Y/N thought of a good excuse for that loose end till Ignis’ touch upon the middle of her thigh nearest him brought her back to herself.

“Are you alright?” Ignis questioned, Y/N’s leg tensing under his touch by instinct. Feeling her muscles react in such a way, he tenderly rubbed the spot to try and calm them back into a relaxed state. “You’ve been quiet for a time yet.”

Y/N’s body found minor tranquility at his motions, a smile pressed upon her lips as she nodded when her fingers took to his hand to let him know it was alright. “I am just fine, Ignis. I am just adjusting to…stuff.” She wasn’t quite sure how to explain it properly, not wanting to give away her idea to even Ignis as she knew he would talk her out of it being the tactician of the group.

His brow furrowed in uncertainty as his fingers coiled upon her grasp, perhaps trying to understand what her vague remark meant. “Not fretful over something, are you?” As he kept a gentle grip on Y/N’s hand, he moved his index finger to her chest yet again where her heart was beating to mutely express his concern.

She laughed quietly to herself, shaking her head. “Hiding things from you is going to be impossible,” she muttered mostly to herself but loud enough for Ignis to hear.

“Even with eyes it was the same,” Prompto added from the front seat as a joking remark, his arms crossed behind his head as Sal continued with driving the Regalia. “Iggy sees everything even when we don’t want him to.”

“I guess it doesn’t help I am a bit of an emotional person,” Y/N chuckled dryly in regards to herself, eyes rolling at her inability to keep her emotions in check. Cradling Ignis’ hand, Y/N brought it close to her chest instead of chasing it away. “I’ll be fine, Ignis. Just a bit in pain, but I know it’s nothing I can’t handle after that naga attack I endured forever ago.” She wasn’t completely lying as her body was adjusting to their connection from last night, and the Templar hoped that response would be enough to sedate Ignis’ concerns.

Ignis’ lips thinned as the answer registered as to what she was implying without being outright about it. Opening his right eye, the misty orb peered right through her though Ignis tried with all his might to actually look at her. “Will you be alright till our next stop? Did you need my help with anything?”

“No, no,” Y/N insisted, cradling his hand and bringing it to her lips to kiss the back of it to sooth him in return. “I am just fine.” It was there she nodded in his direction as Prompto tried to pretend he wasn’t seeing or hearing anything going on in the backseat as it obviously made him feel a bit weird that the two became so close in such a small amount of time. “What about you and your side? Are you still doing alright?” Her hand moved then to where she knew he was injured to touch against it lightly. “I didn’t have a chance to look at it this morning.”

“You sleep quite late is why,” Ignis teased as he allowed her to touch it as she pleased. “As for my wound, it merely needs to be re-bandaged, which can be done once we arrive at our destination in time.”

Y/N grumbled at him playfully. “Not my problem you’re the early bird,” she spat playfully while removing her hand. “But it is not bothering you too much, is it?”

Ignis shook his head as he stifled a laugh in his throat.

The Templar woman stared at him long and hard, sighing to herself as he was indeed quite the mystery that refused to be solved at times. Y/N was aware that he was stronger and handled these situations better than she, but it also made her concerned as to what level of pain he could truly be enduring but being quiet about it. “I’ll try and believe that,” she said as she did her best to relax in the backseat with him for the next few hours of their journey to Galdin Quay.

It was late in the evening by the time the group reached Galdin, nearly making it impossible for even Prompto to find his feet for a moment when Sal stopped the car in the proper parking spot. Y/N found her feet when Ignis shook her awake.

“We’ve arrived,” his voice beckoned gently to her as he opened the car door on his side to exit though allowing her to follow behind him if she so wished.

“What time is it…?” Y/N groaned with a stretch after retreating as well with Ignis and the others.

“Nearly nine in the evening,” responded Sal from Prompto’s grasp. “It was a long trip, and I am sure the reason you’re all exhausted is because of lack of food.”

“She’s right,” sighed Ignis as he recalled they hadn’t truly stopped for much of anything and only had a small breakfast earlier in the morning. “We best make accommodations for a room and eat something before considering retiring for the evening.”

When a room was secured and Prompto and Ignis worked on finishing up their meals, Y/N exited to the small balcony they were given at Galdin Quay’s hotel room to turn on Sal and speak to her as she requested earlier. Y/N hesitated for a moment as the device had powered down to spare what battery life she had when she wasn’t plugged into the car or an outlet of sorts, but the Templar knew it was best to get it over and done with and pressed her thumb on the power button.

“Sal,” Y/N began with a heavy sigh of regret, “I heard you wanted to talk to me through Prompto.” The taste of the salty breeze was hardly distracting in regards to the dry regret that stricken her throat.

The machine sighed as the green voice line wavered at the act. “I did, and…I am sorry for what I did, Y/N. I honestly wasn’t thinking when I produced such an image.”

Y/N’s heart grew heavy as she bit at her lower lip when thinking about the hologram that appeared before her and still haunted her as of current. “It isn’t your fault,” she admitted as her fingers gripped the device as a means for support. “I shouldn’t have…” Y/N’s voice derailed as she hated giving Sal the very idea she was just a clone and nothing else. Her smile, as strained as it was, pressed upon her lips as she shook her head to deny the rest of the words passage. “Don’t worry about it. I’m—I’m much better since then.”

Sal was quiet to register the vocal range of her partner before speaking. “The stress to your tone would suggest otherwise, Y/N, but I will believe you and not press the matter.”

A small bitter laugh escaped Y/N as her eyes darted off to the side, her arms overlapped upon the railing of the balcony from where she stood. “I am serious. Maybe I am not being a hundred percent honest, but I am partially.” Her mind went back to the moment with Ignis where her heart quickened in pace at the very thought of being intimate and close with him—her sworn enemy that the Empire would kill her instantly for being so with.

“Oh?” Sal seemed to sense something in her creator’s words, making her curious.

Y/N turned to look over her shoulder and noted that Prompto had taken his leave of the room real fast with his camera for some reason, allowing Ignis a moment to digest and be at peace as he was there on the bed with one of his phone’s earbuds in place so he could be aware of what was going on about him while enjoying in his audio book no doubt. “I’ll have to tell you later, but right now, I need to go and change Ignis’ bandages before he considers sleeping.”

“If you insist,” spoke Sal with an understanding yet knowing tone that Y/N dismissed. “I’ll possibly speak to you again in the morning then. Goodnight, Y/N.” Shortly after, Sal’s screen went black as she powered herself down without aid of her creator, allowing Y/N to turn and head back inside to aid Ignis.

Hearing the door slide open, Ignis raised his head in the direction to note that he heard Y/N entering the room yet again. “Things are repaired with Sal, are they?”

“Yeah, they are,” Y/N responded, trying not to laugh to herself as she came closer to where Ignis sat. “Enjoying your romantic novel?”

Ignis’ one open eye rolled at her remark as a means to be playful at his reading material choice. “Since when is it unlawful that men cannot enjoy in tasteful romance themselves?” he questioned, listening as Y/N drifted across the room before her weight took beside him there on the bed he was sitting on.

Y/N stifled her laugh against the palm of her hand. “It isn’t, but I guess I just never knew many who did—at least not many that openly admit to enjoying it.”

Ignis tilted his head to the side. “Ah, but you found it because you were prying on my phone, Y/N. I never openly admitted such a secret about myself.”

“I told you, it popped up by accident,” Y/N spoke in her defense, turning on the bed to check the door nearby as if expecting Prompto to be back soon. “Where’d Prompto go to?”

Ignis hummed as he shifted a bit uncomfortably on the bed. “He went to take some pictures about Galdin. He never is one to miss a photo opportunity even if I insist otherwise in regards to sleep and time.”

Y/N placed Sal on the nearby nightstand between the beds before grabbing at Ignis’ black coat to work on removing it from his shoulders. Ignis didn’t truly fight her on the matter, but he did try to express a look of uncertainty of what was on her mind. “I need to change your bandages unless Prompto did that when I wasn’t looking.”

“He didn’t as I forgot to ask,” admitted Ignis, maneuvering his arms out of the sleeves of the coat with Y/N pulling it from him.

“How did you forget to ask when you’re sitting in gross bandages that I am sure are uncomfortable as fuck right now,” Y/N chuckled as she grabbed onto his shirt next to pull it off and over his head when he finally removed the earbud from his ear to let it be an easier process.

Ignis merely shrugged his brow, a hum of a laugh resonating past his lips as if to deny the truth in the matter as he was finally unclothed enough to allow Y/N a look. “Well?” he questioned, moving his arm to give her a better view. “How are the damages?”

Y/N frowned at noting how the bandages had been bled a bit through, her fingertips touching upon the handiwork gently before bothering to remove them so she could clean the area and replace the wrappings. “You were sitting in these for hours, and the bandages got quite gross,” she expressed in a sigh of disappointment Ignis didn’t let her change them earlier before they departed for Galdin. “Why didn’t you tell anybody sooner?”

The advisor to the Crown tilted his head in her direction, lips thinning in a neutral frown of sorts. “I’ve dealt with worse, love,” he spoke reassuringly. “Not just from my injuries from wearing the Ring of the Lucii but from hunts that have gone awry sometime after accompanied with my new lack of vision with merely myself to tend to my own wounds.”

Her brow furrowed, sighing to herself in disappointment at his stubbornness. Palm upon his chest, Y/N hesitated even if their confession was just last night until finding the courage to partially embrace him without causing him further discomfort and pain. Ignis didn’t tense nor did he recoil or anything of the sort—allowing Y/N to hold him as she desired. “Just remember that there are people who care about you and don’t want you in pain or feeling uncomfortable.”

A smile flickered upon the advisor’s lips (unseen by her) as he found Y/N’s cheek with ease to lightly touch it with his index finger to try and bring a calm to her. “Do not fret about me, my darling. It is you I am most concerned for with…how the scales tip as they do at present.” Ignis was no fool. With what they had done and what they confessed to each other, he knew this end poorly for both of them if they weren’t safe and only one of them knew how to fight.

Y/N didn’t wish to dwell on that thought, moving to kiss his cheek before departing from his side with an empty bottle they had stored away in their belongings. “I’ll be right back. I need to get water from the bathroom to clean your injury.” Moving with purpose across the room, she shut the bathroom door behind her and sighed to herself in private at being reminded that she may be ostracized if the Empire found out about her sleeping with the enemy without the intention of bringing him down and to their cause.

When everything was prepared, Y/N eventually returned to wash the blood free from the daemon’s mark that remained on Ignis’ form. She was careful as the advisor seemed to keep his painful cries to a subtle, throaty grunt from time to time when he wasn’t pleased with the pain ripping through him. He was hardly vocal, and it troubled Y/N when he would act so tough and stubborn. The wound that had been stitched up by her hands always made her cringe when she got a good look at the damage that behemoth had done. The very thought that Ignis took that wound for her when he felt nothing romantic between them (or she assumed) made Y/N merely appreciate his act of kindness and mercy all the more. Shifting closer to his side, she kissed the spot that had been cleaned as a means to thank him without saying a word.

Ignis’ head tilted as he raised a brow curiously at the act. “Hardly hygienic to use your lips as a means to clean my injury, Y/N,” he lightly teased though could feel the area was less mudded in terms of dry blood when he moved.

Y/N sputtered a joking laugh in return at his words, her palm lying to rest on his upper thigh. “It is cleaned, you wise ass.” Her hands next groped for the gauze to work on concealing the wound with a nasally sigh to herself at having to replay that awful day when the behemoth attacked. “I meant to thank you for taking that hit for me,” Y/N continued, voice pregnant with a mixture of sorrow he had to but seriousness in the matter. “I was always told the Lucians would kill without mercy and the caretakers under the King of Lucis were far worse and colder than Lady Shiva’s embrace. The moment you had me back at that lake when the naga got me, I thought that would be it for me.”

The advisor paused in thought at her confession, turning his head in her direction to acknowledge her words as the misty eye continued to gaze off at nothing in particular. “Truthfully, Y/N, you thanked me already back in the Regalia,” he reminded her. “As I am to surmise that ‘thank you for everything you’ve done’ meant indeed  _everything_.” Forgetting that he had not his glasses, by impulse of the residual heaviness of his glasses being on his nose, Ignis fondled for them to move only to be reminded they weren’t there. “As for what fear your superiors inaugurated within you, it comes as no surprise given what killing machines the Empire can produce in even none-MTs, and trepidation is a mighty weapon to use on your subordinates.”

The bed moved under Y/N’s weight after finishing the last of the wrappings about Ignis’ torso as she inched closer to him where she kissed his cheek to catch his gaze a bit better with the one eye he kept open. Arms wrapped about his neck, Y/N guided his head closer to where she could rest the warmth of her cheek comfortably against his own as it had been forever, it seemed, since she had been allowed the kindness of being able to touch someone as this. “I’ll see about finding you glasses sometime when we’re on our journey, by the way,” Y/N whispered with a small tenor of a laugh on her words, having caught his kneejerk reaction to try and move them up the slope of his nose earlier.

Ignis’ smile widened slightly, his palm resting comfortable upon her opposite hip. “It isn’t imperative, Y/N. I am just used to them being there all of my life, so you’ll bear witness to me forgetting they’re not from time to time as it’s a habit to adjust them.”

Y/N moved to nuzzle under his chin before her lips graced the rough texture just under his jaw line of where a beard threatened to form. The kiss was simple but enough of one to have her feel that Ignis was moving his head ever so, curious as to what she was up to as he felt some form of interest in something behind her actions. When the gentle and simple attention of her lips moved to the flat of Y/N’s tongue, it was there the advisor swallowed audibly and quite possibly to where the Niff could feel it against her tongue as well.

“I would strongly advise you not continue with that,” Ignis insisted, his tone labored with a want for more but battling with the thought it wasn’t wise to encourage it with all things considered.

“Aww, why?” Y/N asked, her words purring on his neck before migrating towards his ear.

Feeling just the hot warmth of her breath near his ear made Ignis flinch though did his best to hide the obvious excitement budding within him. “Prompto may return, love,” Ignis reminded her, gritting his teeth as he remained in control.

Noting his actions, Y/N grinned mischievously. “You seem to be sensitive near your ears, Ignis.” The Templar moved again, her lips pressing together in tender harmony upon the lobe of his ear to nibble it in a manner that sparked a heated rise from the advisor in her care.

Ignis’ lip quivered in delight as he tried to kindly pull away. “B-Because my hearing is sensitive as of recent years if you’ve so forgotten, Y/N…!” He breathed out his relief when Y/N stopped torturing him in the moment. Ignis motioned to his ear when his companion allowed him a second to catch his breath. “The sound of one’s voice that I care for excites me and feeling and hearing it so close is…well,  _enticing_ , we shall say.”

Y/N shook her head humorously at his desire to show decorum, groping without restraint for his crotch only to feel him yet again try to block her advances as his legs tightened together to cage her grip there. “It’s fine to say it gives you an erection or  _arouses_  you,” Y/N teased as she could very well feel it there against her hand. “You don’t have to be proper all the time.”

Ignis grumbled in playful annoyance at her persistent behavior, grabbing at her wrist to pry her hand free of where it was. “If Prompto becomes a witness to these acts, I don’t want to hear how embarrassed you are when I warned you.”

“So you don’t want to risk it?” Y/N asked with a small laugh at his eagerness to wiggle away from her for once in their journey together.

“I-Of course not!” Ignis stuttered as if shocked she’d ask something so ridiculous. “There is a time and a place for moments such as these, and now is neither!”

Y/N released her hand, kissing his flushed cheek to try and settle him with a laugh at his disgruntled mannerisms. “Ah, so the Regalia is the best place then?”

Ignis’ lips thinned as his brow wrinkled in disapproval of her using that against him. “To be fair, it was the heat of the moment that guided me in that direction, and I could sense nobody was around, so I took the risk.”

“Relax,” Y/N laughed a bit louder as she spared another kiss to the corner of his lips before groping for his shirt he had on earlier. “I just love to fuck with you as it’s funny to watch you get all up in a tizzy.”

“You are hardly alone in your endeavors,” sighed Ignis in abundant relief that she was willing to let him be without worry of someone catching him making love to her. “Speaking of, how are you feeling?” He cleared his throat, hoping to settle himself and not coax Y/N onward in the act that could be reserved for later. “You said you were in pain from our time together back at the caravan?”

Y/N twisted her mouth to the side as if to shrug off the pain that was minor at beast. “It’s like the equivalent of saddle sores when you ride a chocobo for the first time—nothing to be worried about.” With his shirt back into place, Y/N merely embraced him to rest lazily against his form. “You’re just too big for me.”

“I am not that blessed, Y/N,” scoffed Ignis in a teasing manner, moving his fingers through her hair to aid her in relaxing. “Your sight and body deceives you in the matter.”

Chuckling to herself, Y/N’s embrace upon him merely tightened. “Don’t worry about it. It is just dull and annoying, but I know it’ll go away in time.”

“You best get to sleep,” expressed the advisor as he granted her a kiss upon the top of her head. “We have an early start tomorrow, and we will be on the boat for awhile just to get to the Empire.”

Sighing at the idea of having to head into enemy territory that was once her homeland, Y/N nodded reluctantly as she pulled from Ignis’ touch to consider the thought. “Guess I should slip into your other shirt then.” Y/N hadn’t thought to bring extra clothes given the very idea she figured her job wouldn’t get so complicated trying to retrieve the data about the King of Lucis, and she hadn’t bothered to buy any either when they made a few stops along the way.

Ignis motioned to where he remembered his bag being left in relation to his position. “It’s just there. I’ll need to find a moment to buy you new clothes given how long our journey is to be.”

“I am sure the Empire would question why I have new clothes if I make it inside to Gralea,” pointed out Y/N a bit nervous over the mere thought as she unzipped Ignis’ duffle bag to fish out the shirt she usually wore as a nightgown. “I am sure they assume me dead, so they would be surprised as to why I took this long just to get to them let alone waste my time buying new attire…” Her voice trailed off in concern of the matter, hating the thought she would have to put them all in danger at some point to possibly prove her loyalty to the Empire still. Honestly, Y/N was still trying to put the plan together as they went onward.

“Y/N…” Ignis began in a firm tone, leaning forward on his thighs with his hands clasped between his legs. “…What do you intend to do when we reach the Empire?”

The way he asked such a question, Y/N wondered if he had caught onto her inner desire to get the Empire to her faster by contacting them through Sal, and her heart leapt in her chest. “Wh-What do you mean?” she questioned, bringing the dark shirt to her chest as a means to hopefully quiet her racing heart.

Ignis’ sigh softly escaped his nostrils, which flared in concern of the answers he may very well be given. “Do you intend to fall back under their ranks? Do you…propose to go back to them?”

Y/N’s eyes shifted about nervously as she hadn’t thought about what she would do. If her planned worked without herself getting caught, she could stay there in Niflheim with nobody being the wiser as Ignis and his comrades went freely back to Insomnia. However, in doing so, she knew she would never see Ignis again given the war that separated them at current. “If I help you in getting your King free and remove the information from Sal…I am sure there would be no reason for you to take me back to Insomnia to have me tried, as I would prove that I do not wish any of you harm.” She watched as Ignis seemed to stiffen at the thought, perhaps fearful this was going to be Y/N’s way of saying an early ‘goodbye’. “So…there would honestly be no reason for me to leave the Empire.”

The hunter assassin’s lip lowered ever so at her confession as if stunned by it. “No reason…?” he parroted, his voice labored with pain at those choice of words.

The hurt in his voice was agonizing to repeat in her mind. “Ignis, Niflheim is my home…!” Y/N reminded him, having never left the island since the day she was born unless to visit Lucis for the sake of duty and gathering key information needed to weaken Ignis and his King’s forces. “I have…I have no place to truly live in Lucis as I would be an unwelcomed guest there.”

“You could stay with me in the Citadel of Insomnia,” spoke Ignis without restraint, trying to feverishly encourage Y/N to change her mind.

“I…!” Y/N flinched at the very thought, scared to work underneath the King of Lucis as she never really met him before. “Wh-Why don’t you come and move to Niflheim? Why do I have to be in Lucis?”

“Because I am the Hand of the King and a Crownsguard officer—royal advisor to the ruler of the Crown City!” Ignis explained in a risen voice, gesturing to himself. “I cannot abandon my station to the one I’ve devoted my life to since I was six, Y/N.” He tilted his head curiously, frown remaining to show his displeasure in her wishing to severe their connection already. “Are you truly just terrified to come live in Lucis with me or is there someone else waiting for you back in Niflheim?”

“No!” Y/N shouted right away as she took to her feet in a hurry. “N-Nobody is waiting for me back home! I swear it!” Her eyes looked about the room, wondering what proof she could truly give him beyond her word. “My…My family abandoned me when I was little, and I was just kind of raised by the Empire and Sulista, so I feel…I feel kind of indebted to them—especially my commanding officer, Ivayle.”

Ignis’ frown deepened. “You mean the commanding officer who never once contacted you to be certain you were alright?”

Y/N gasped at his harsh words, feeling a mortal wound struck to her heart at that realization. “She…” Her words cracked as she tried to stand in Ivayle’s corner. “She’s probably just not had the chance to…! I just—!” Y/N halted her speech, raising her hands to the conversation at present to beg it to end. “—how about we focus on the task at hand before bothering to speak of where we go from there?” Y/N’s body fell to surrender as her shoulders slumped forward. “For all we know, one of us may not even make it out alive…” She spoke more in relation to herself, knowing Ignis would be capable as would Prompto. “I’d rather not pre-celebrate before then.”

The advisor lowered his head at her equally cold words. “I will see to it that no harm befalls you, Y/N.” He hadn’t noticed that the Templar woman had gone rigid at his words given his lack of sight. “I won’t let you fall.”

Y/N bit at her trembling lower lip to still her emotional pain from bubbling forth, hearing Sulista say those words from her haunting memories. “The last…the last person who made that promise died protecting me.” The tears pricked at her eyes as she kept Ignis’ shirt close to her chest. “Don’t waste your life on my account, Ignis…I beg you!”

“Y/N…!”

Hearing the urgency of wishing to be forgiven yet not go unheard in merely her name being said, the Templar quickly hurried to the bathroom ahead to change into the shirt and be apart from him for a moment or two to recollect herself. The door closed in haste, Y/N rested her back against it as if to barricade it and prevent Ignis from entering it if he dared to follow her. Body quivering, Y/N brought Ignis’ shirt to her face to hide her shame only to smell of him there against the fabric and adding further weight to her decision in the matters ahead.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now, this is/was a 10 chapter commission, so we'll see where it goes from here. x"D Gotta work stuff out with the commissioner! Thanks for the love and stuffs for the story so far! ;w; Means a lot~

Y/N tried to shake the doubt from her in regards to what their traveling over to Niflheim would truly do. A part of her wished she could trick Ignis and Prompto in just staying put on Lucis while she gained speed to Gralea, but she knew shaking the two would hardly be as easy as that and tried to find more pleasant things to think about in the obnoxious early morning hours. Y/N was fully aware she’d find a moment or two longer to focus on her plans later as the three of them sat down to eat in the dining area just near the docks, waiting for the ship they would need to board. However, the surrounding families and loved ones talking at the nearby tables did bring her senses to a distracting halt as she paid more attention to the strangers about them then what was at risk. 

Two small boys seemed to be interested in playing with their little beach ball on land while their parents continued to eat and enjoy their meal. The resonance of their laughter made Y/N stall in her own eating to merely watch them as Prompto himself seemed to slip out his camera for a quick second to snap a picture of the two in satisfaction. He was always taking a picture of something. This was starting to become apparent to Y/N over time that he was a photo taking maniac. 

“At least someone’s having fun,” Y/N commented simply in regards to children in general having such a carefree life. She moved the fork to her mouth, eating the last bit of the breakfast food the dining area was serving given the early hour. “Must be nice to be that young with little to no responsibilities.” 

Ignis’ head turned at Y/N’s remark, making sense of the many sounds, vibrations, and speeches happening all at once that morning. There wasn’t much that was distracting to him and when he heard the laughter of the two children he had to guess they were probably no older than six given their mannerisms and how they talked. “You mean the little ones?” the advisor questioned curiously. 

“Yeah,” Y/N answered with a hidden sigh in her words. “There’s two kids playing with a ball near the table just one over from us, and I am only being bitter.” She jokingly added the last statement regardless of how true it was. 

While Ignis appeared to be looking in the boys’ direction, he wasn’t exactly sure where they were beyond the fact they were indeed not too far away and were tossing a ball about given how the boards underneath his feet would slightly quiver at their movement and how the blown up beach ball would make a hollowing sound whenever hitting the ground (if it did). “Pleasant times do indeed end for all, but what matters is in those times we find salvation in past and present moments of pleasure and aim to make more in the future no matter what is in store.” 

“How obnoxiously poetic of you,” chimed in Sal from where she was resting on the table between Ignis and Y/N. 

“Sal!” Y/N scolded quietly, unsure why the device was still so aggressive at Ignis. 

Ignis merely raised his hand to Y/N’s attempt to keep the machine quiet on his behalf. It was starting to bother him very little with what strength he had in patience. Prompto himself couldn’t help but try to stifle a nervous laugh in the matter as he put his camera away for the time being. 

“You, uh…drop her or something, Iggy?” 

Ignis shook his head, lips thinning at the thought. “I’ve never handled her improperly, no.” 

“Says the man who wanted me disassembled in the beginning,” reminded Sal coldly, but the tone she was mimicking sounded more like she was merely mocking him in a playful manner and not truly as upset about it as before when she was told. 

It seemed the joke was lost on the advisor as he raised a single brow at the remark, eyes closing as the sea breeze was starting to agitate his sensitive sight. “I apologized for that before, my dear, and you know I had my reasons.” 

Y/N rolled her eyes, scooping Sal into her possession. “She’s just busting your balls, Ignis,” commented the Templar. “She isn’t nearly as angry about it anymore, but her sarcasm chip could use a bit of work.” Tampering with a few buttons, she tried to see if there was any update that Sal might not be telling her of in regards to the Ring of the Lucii, but nothing came to the surface at the present time. Sighing nasally in frustration, she let the machine go into idle sleep before pocketing her. 

Prompto watched Y/N closely from across the table, rolling his teeth over his lower lip as if nervous to ask. “Anything in regards to Noct and the ring…?” 

“No,” she simply replied in a worrisome way. Y/N never thought she would be so concerned over a king she had little care for other than previously seeing his ultimate destruction when it came to her past rearing under the Empire. 

Ignis caught onto the sombering sound of her words, urging his hand to find her own there under the table to comfort her with merely his touch—perhaps, in truth, needing her own in turn. 

A lot was on her mind and while Y/N would have found comfort in Ignis’ hold before, it was beginning to feel heavier than normal. She would have to make a tough choice in regards to what she wanted to do when the final battle was over. With her palm touching upon the back of the advisor’s hand, she closed her eyes tightly to fight back the negativity desiring to swallow her whole. Y/N did what she could to find relief in the tender and loving act. 

 

 

“The one thing I do not miss about being on a boat is how long it takes for us just to get from Niflheim to Lucis and vise versa,” Y/N grumbled aloud when Ignis and herself found a room next door to the one given to Prompto on a cruise ship that had come into port that morning for them to take. 

Ignis moved his duffle bag to the foot of the bed he was going to take upon finding it using echolocation by pressing his heel a bit harder into the carpeted flooring of the boat, sending out a small vibration to figure out where everything was. “A week is indeed a long time, but we already were fully aware it was going to take us nearly a month or so to get to the seat of the Empire.” His hands moved to the bed’s covers to feel of them before sitting on the side of it. “You don’t get easily seasick, do you?” 

Y/N scrunched up her nose and swatted away the accusation. “Neh, I just hate being stuck in the same location for too long at times. Even a hermit like me wants to get out and move about sometime.” Seeing as Prompto took Sal, Y/N had nothing to truly unpack and merely flopped face first on the bed as she was still tired from the early rise. “This is good.” Her words were practically muffled by the covers as she lay still upon the bed like a dead person with her arms at her sides. 

Ignis hardly heard them but paid the simple phrase little mind as he began to remove his boots to get comfortable as he had no reason to truly venture about the boat at current. As his darkened sight gazed in Y/N’s direction, the advisor thought on the best way to ask what he wanted to without being direct. “Those children weren’t bothering you any at breakfast, were they?” 

She found the question oddly placed at current, but Y/N moved onto her side and humored him with an answer. “Not at all. I don’t mind kids and they don’t mind me, so it’s perfect harmony there.” 

One of his boots was removed and Ignis took care in massaging the middle of his foot to work out the weariness. “Never fancied yourself a mother then, I wager?” 

Hearing the title, Y/N scrunched up her nose again as if appalled to even consider it. “Well, I…don’t know.” She moved to where she too now was sitting on the side of her bed. “My mom was never truly around to tell me how to be a woman and there was even a time that…well…an old friend—a _different_ old friend than Sulista, mind you—miscarried to the point I got scared of even wanting to picture it.”

Ignis’ brow wrinkled in dismay at that news. “I am sorry for your friend’s loss. That must have been difficult,” he quietly spoke, turning his attention back to the task at hand in regards to removing his other boot. 

“She wasn’t the same since, and I just…” Y/N’s words derailed, hating she fell out of contact with her given the loss her friend suffered. Her hand rubbed the back of her neck to rid herself of the uneasy feeling. “…Maybe she healed.” Y/N tried to smile at the thought, breathing out her anxiety. “I’d like to think she did.” 

“Time is merciful as it is cruel,” reminded the royal retainer as he unfastened the last of the buckles on his other boot to loosen it. “I am certain she is far better.” 

Y/N shrugged her brow at the pleasant thought wishing her own salvation of coming to terms with losing Sulista would grace her in time. “Anyways—to answer you, I guess I get sort of upset when I see new mothers or mothers-to-be around me because I don’t know what I want, but at the same time, I do not trust myself to be a good mother.” 

“You would be a fine mother, Y/N,” Ignis encouraged across from her, finally ridding himself of the other leather boot. “When life grants us such challenges, we stand firm and take on the responsibilities a lot more graciously then we think we will.” 

Y/N rolled her eyes playfully at his sentiment, moving her feet back and forth like a child idly. “I am sure if I had the right, responsible adult or something beside me then it would be easier to consider what I wanted to do with a child.” 

Ignis opened his left eye to peer in her direction to the best of his ability. “I do not qualify then?” he questioned curiously though a bit dreadful of what Y/N would say after their last talk of what they planned to do after this confrontation was over and Noctis and Gladiolus were saved. 

The Templar woman was glad she wasn’t drinking anything but all the same, she nearly choked on her own spit when Ignis came right out to say it. “I-Ignis…! What are you implying!” Y/N demanded to know, clearing her throat and trying to settle her small coughing fit. Her cheeks hued with a bright blush, knowing full well what he was insinuating. 

His legs crossed, fingers intertwined upon his knee as though he was about to make some sort of business proposal. “In the future, Y/N, I would like to consider the possibilities of passing on my linage to a child of my own given the position in which I stand before the King of Lucis. His own child requires an advisor as of late to tend to him as he ages, and I would want that responsibility to fall on my line,” Ignis explained, his thumbs tapping together as if to barricade his nervousness in the matter. “And in less business reasons and more selfish…” His words paused as he shifted about on the bed. “…it would be nice to know what it feels like to be a father to a child I love and with a woman I love.” 

Y/N went speechless, her mind struggling to even think of the proper thing to say let alone yell at him for first. “Ignis, we just wanted to murder each other nearly a few days ago, and what did I tell you last night about celebrating early!” Her words were risen, frantic and uncertain of where anything could truly end. 

Ignis frowned at her choice of words. “And I told _you_ , Y/N, that I would protect you. What you aim to do after this is over will be very much in your hands, but I am offering you something far more pleasant than years of solitude in your past mistakes and servitude to an Order that doesn’t love you like I do.” Ignis pointed at where he could hear her speaking. “I am willing to remove your shackles of shame and guilt you’ve placed upon yourself and bind you to me and the love I have for you.” 

 ** _Love_** … 

Hearing it from him even now in a more sobering environment was oddly foreign even if welcoming. Hand moved to her rapidly beating heart, Y/N tried to stifle its loud thumping in worry Ignis would hear it. “You cannot speak in my corner when it comes to my punishment at the hands of your Lucian King when we free him.” 

“And who says I need to?” Ignis questioned, leaning forward just a bit to where the bed moaned under his movements. “I trust my King will make the proper assessment in this. Should I be requested to stand in your stead, then I will gladly do so.” 

Thinking about what she should do, Y/N knew in the climax of the end she’d have to surrender a lot of things at her home as there would be no time to truly grab anything if the Empire found out her betrayal. There were a few items she wanted to keep in terms of memories and the like, but again—the future remained uncertain and horrifying to her. Why couldn’t she just go back home and to bed again? Her palm rubbed her upper arm to be rid of the goose bumps that freckled her. “I just…” Words were failing her. What could she truly say to a future that was uncertain? Y/N’s lips moved inward as a heavy sigh escaped shortly after. “You promise me you won’t get yourself killed?”

Hearing the horror mixed with fear in her tone from across the room, Ignis pulled himself to his feet and ventured towards Y/N to ask for her hands with his palms open to her before taking a seat beside her. When he felt the weight of her touch, the advisor brought it to his chest. “I will do what is necessary to see everyone alive—.” 

“—Promise me!” Y/N interrupted, hating that he was thinking of the broader picture than just himself at current. Ignis closed his mouth, preventing the words from continuing at the Templar’s forward demand. “I cannot go onward knowing someone I care for dies before me again! Do not make me go through that pain once more, please!” Her head rested against Ignis’ chest eventually, letting her hands go to his lap with his still cradling them. “The worst of it would be me being pregnant with your child after all of this is over and having to constantly be reminded of my failure in that child’s eyes…” 

Ignis’ brow rose ever so at the mere mention, wondering if she was even considering the idea with that statement. “I would not leave you behind, Y/N,” he soothed, his fingers gracing the strands of her hair to try and lure her into a state of peace. “Least of all with my legacy growing inside of you.” His hands moved hers to his lips to kiss her knuckles. “Do you have such a lack in my abilities, my dear?” 

“I have a lack of confidence in myself,” Y/N corrected. “You would have killed that daemon without me getting in the damn way…you wouldn’t have been hurt!” 

Thinking back on the moment, Ignis’ lips parted as if to expel a quiet sigh at the mention of her being the reason he took the blow. “It was my fault for not gaining my own clarity on the situation,” explained Ignis to try and take the blame from her. “I heard you scream like you were about to die, and I ran in without much thought.” He sensed her breathe as if to dispute him. “Don’t you dare blame yourself, Y/N,” Ignis scolded as his brow furrowed at the thought. “I should have been more focused on the matter at hand and not let my emotions blind me further.” 

Y/N knew it would be pointless to fight with him, leaving her to rest against his chest as the subtle beating of his heart calmed her. “Then…if you promise me that you won’t get yourself killed…” The Templar paused as the words fretfully tried to halt her in speaking as she gazed upward at the hunter assassin who was trying to look in her direction with the one misty eye he had open. Gathering her courage, Y/N breathed in and out her strength at the proposal she had been given to think on. “…I will move with you to Lucis after accepting my punishment from King Noctis and start a family with you.” 

Ignis quietly gasped in delight as he moved forward to urge Y/N’s lips upon his own. His fingertips caressing her cheek in gratitude, he tilted his head to the side with his tongue in loving want pressing upon her oral barrier to ask for entrance as he hadn’t a time or moment to truly kiss her as this yet again since the last. He knows he could have, but he would have preferred not to make Prompto uncomfortable as he was aware his comrade still had a few doubts in regards to Y/N. 

Eyes closed to enjoy in the warming sensation, Y/N wrapped her arms around his neck to urge Ignis onward as it felt like a sort of feeling of going without water for too long—she just knew she needed it to revive herself again and his love was no different. Tongue lovingly stroking his in passing, Y/N found herself drunk on the sweet taste as she drank in her fill with a quiet moan humming in her throat. Fingers digging into the back of his dusty blond tresses upon their movement, Y/N found herself being quietly escorted down to the bed’s covers where she found the linens supporting her not near as in kind as Ignis did. Honestly, she found the mattress a bit too stiff for her liking but paid it no attention. Her palms upon his cheeks when their lips broke free from one another, Y/N released a mocking, delicate laugh that rumbled in her throat. “So now you want to make love with me?” 

“I wasn’t about to give my companion nightmares if he walked in on me in a sexual state,” Ignis explained, placing a gentle kiss upon Y/N’s cheek before moving off of her. “Speaking of…” He took to his feet once more and moved to the door to make sure it was at least locked and that nobody would barge in on them before heading back to Y/N’s side to slide back onto the bed with ease. “Now I can begin without concern.” 

Y/N’s jean jacket was out of Ignis way in no time before he bothered to work on her white undershirt next—un-tucking it from where it was in her jeans and letting it lay to rest beside the other he had taken the pleasure of discarding. Y/N would have been cocky and teased him he was going a bit fast, but just as she wished to, the advisor slowed and his lips found their desired place upon her heart as his arms embraced her. He ignored the throbbing want to be more forward in the loving act no matter how uncomfortable it would make him in time. One arm behind the Templar’s neck where his fingers coiled upon the ball of her opposite shoulder, Ignis moved her closer to his lips as he remained stationed in a praising and unworthy stance at just holding her. 

“I know not what game the gods play in my stead,” he murmured, the hot words moistening Y/N’s skin and sending a shiver down her spine. “A captive I would have so seen to the end has become my everything and given me the path to my wishful desires.” He paused in his musings, a finger sliding upon Y/N’s bra strap to let it fall from place to expose her further. “How fate does indeed change things for us all in unexpected ways.” 

Y/N laughed sympathetically between them, her fingers burying into his tresses once more. “And the man I thought was going to kill me has asked me to be his and to have his child,” she reminded Ignis. “More than fate, I guess, but simply a reminder that…we’re all just people caught up in some crazy war. Maybe if there was no war such love would be far easier.” 

Ignis moved at her words, misty sights gazing in her direction as he seemed to ponder her words. He opened his mouth to speak but it seemed the words frightened him too much to say, so the advisor refrained. His arm behind her urged Y/N forward and closer to his chest where he merely kissed her forehead as if to show some form of appreciation. “I have you now regardless of what sets us apart,” Ignis’ labored tone breathed upon her skin, “so let me love you…” 

Their bare skin was soon the only thing giving them warmth in the slight chill in the room they had for the week to come. Y/N’s hands to Ignis’ cheeks once more, she steadied his features to obtain a better view of them in the improved lighting. “It’s only been a day since I’ve had the chance to feel you like this, and yet it seems like an eternity; as though I’ve not touched you in years.” 

Ignis’ cheek pressed against her right hand, moving to where his lips could kiss her on the palm. “Then I shouldn’t delay much further,” spoke the advisor between them. “I should rectify the mistake of having you wait too long.” Freed from her grasp, Ignis’ lips found their desired touch between her breasts with his tongue following shortly after to flick in kind upon her exposed flesh. Feeling her arch into his actions, he went onward on his travels to taste of every part of her while his hands had moved to cradle her thighs and keep her still from the budding excitement. 

When the warmth of his mouth came upon the exposed clit, Ignis gave it a tender and sweet kiss as if to mutely promise to treat her properly. The flat of his tongue scrubbed the swollen sex to excite the cries from Y/N further, listening in great interest and excitement as they escalated in praise the more he continued. Ignis’ caress sweetly pet upon her inner thigh as though to encourage her onward in her regaling at his actions. 

Every warm breath that teased her skin, every pleasing squeeze of his fingers into her legs, and every moist kiss upon her sensitive clit made Y/N cry out so loudly she had to result to biting upon her own fist to stifle the sound in worry she could be disruptive. Her body quivered and she even nearly fell to her side to try and regain control of herself as the sensation was mounting at an uncontrollable pace…one she was far from used to, but Ignis kept her firm and steady being where he was between her legs. 

She felt his lips move onward, the wet muscle teasing the dewed petals of her entrance before being bold and diving inward to sample the very nectar of her. With his nose unintentionally rubbing against her swollen sex and breathing an aggressive heat upon it, Y/N arched and thrust forward to try and move Ignis’ tongue as far in as possible. He kept his grip firm upon her legs, keeping Y/N still and down as he rolled his tongue up and back towards him in a repetitive and slow motion to taste of the sweet lubrication he had excited. 

As his moan vibrated in kind upon the lips of her entrance, Y/N felt the intense sensation slowly coming to a halt as Ignis departed from her and trailed his loving lips up her thigh for a mere moment. “Why…Why did you stop?” Y/N asked as she opened her eyes just a bit to watch as the advisor’s muscles flexed when he crawled forward to where his hands pinned hers on either side of her head. He was breathing heavily and even the light caught the glimpses of sweat that had beaded his form. 

“There’s no reason for you to get off that easily, Y/N,” spoke Ignis as his forehead soon rested upon hers. He kissed her features while letting the warmth of his breath blanket her face. “Not in too much pain to allow me the pleasure once more?” 

Y/N shook her head quickly, wrapping her arms about the upper back of the assassin to pull him in closer to her. “I am ready.” Her voice quivered in euphoric delight as her legs widened to give him further room to do as he pleased. Admittedly, she was nervous. Her body still did ache just a bit from their last time together and now he was willing to do it again. Biting at her lower lip, her fingers tensed and pricked at his upper back when she felt the engorged head part her entrance before finding rest completely inside of her womanly temple in time. 

Her body tightened, moving into Ignis’ balmy embrace that soon sheltered her. The advisor’s legs tensed and his knees pushed into the stiff mattress beneath him as he thrust forward in a loving and slow motion, noting how knotted and resistant she felt—perhaps in worry of the pain to come from their new union. Concentrating on his breathing and encouraged onward in the sensual dance by the cries of delight that lulled him into a semi-faster speed, Ignis’ nose nudged against her flushed cheek as his hips rocked forward to loosen her tightened passage, which worked on adjusting to his size. 

Lips apart, the kindness of his coming words left their residual impact upon Y/N’s cheek. “I love you…” Ignis praised over the strangled cries of ecstasy that melodically past Y/N’s quivering mouth. His flattering words moved to her lips to silence her for a mere moment as they connected in a delicate kiss. “I love you so much, Y/N…!” he continued when he was free to speak once more. 

Y/N’s laughter trembled as she wrapped her arms tightly about Ignis to bring him closer to her chest as she felt the tears prick at her eyes. “I would die without you…” she murmured through her gasping moans as her body recoiled ever so slightly at every harsh thrust the advisor was soon placing within her. Rolling her head back, Y/N released another cry of praise at the erotic feeling of every ridge of his erection caressing her lubricated form. She knew she wouldn’t be able to hold back much longer, even her own body giving a warning squeeze to tighten the fit Ignis was given inside of her. 

Ignis seemed to stall for a moment, letting her body find a sense of peace before he gathered his courage and went for it. Huffing a heavy sigh through his nostrils, the Hand of the King moved forward several more times to coax Y/N into her climax before he too could no longer hold back and under her guidance, his release shot forth and coated the entrance to her womb. 

The budding warmth inside of her after the intense release was a pleasant treat to her senses. It soothed her weary body, bringing Y/N into a relaxed state of being as she unwound her arms from Ignis and let them rest on either side of her face. As she attempted to get her breathing back under control, she felt Ignis depart from her with a subtle grunt from the tightness leaving his spent manhood, but he didn’t desire for Y/N to be in further discomfort. The blond lightly tapped her side. 

“Move for a moment, love,” he insisted breathlessly as his fingers went for the pillows of the bed to move them to the floor. 

Y/N did as requested, noting that he was pulling the covers out of place so that they could have an area to rest. “Already? We just woke up not but three hours ago.” 

“I am just asking we be more comfortable than resting on top of covers exposed as we are,” insisted Ignis with a small chuckle as he cleared the space, allowing Y/N under the sheets if she wished. “Is it a crime on my behalf to desire a moment in your arms until we find our feet again for the day?” 

“I never said either was bad,” Y/N said as a playful retort, moving under the bed sheets before Ignis followed in after her. “I guess I thought you were asking us back to bed again, and I thought that was weird.” 

Again, Ignis chortled. “I may very well be blind, but I have a sense of time.” His arms moved about her once more but in a change of pace, Ignis rested his cheek against her chest to allow Y/N a sense of having a bit more power over him in the moment. “Besides, best to relish in the quiet and peaceful moments till our war catches up with us,” he whispered against her body, moving his leg over hers to bring her in close and protectively. “Just promise me…you’ll…never leave me,” Ignis pleaded as if fearing that could be the case in the future. 

His words were heavy and almost quivering in a sort of way that showed he could cry at any minute thinking she would. Y/N frowned at the thought but a smile chased it away just as quickly as it came. “I will never leave you…” Her fingers embedded within Ignis’ tresses, she lightly massaged his scalp to the point she could hear him muffling a few pleasing moans against her body. Protected with him so close, Y/N laid her cheek to rest against his messy hair while hoping their laid future plans would come to fruition.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Continued commission for martascully. Ugh, meant to do this sooner as a birthday gift to her earlier in the month but shitty weather and emotional/physical health has been less than kind. Thanks for your continued support and everything you do, hon. It is always appreciated. <3

Y/N’s fingers curled ever so slightly in the dark room on the ship she had taken passage on, bringing herself back from the realm of sleep. The firm mattress that the boat had to offer reminded the Templar that she was very much on her way back home as the uncomfortable sensation was hardly new given how recently she had been upon such a bed before just traveling to Lucis; however, what was new was how her simple movement caused another behind her to stir and make her body realize the weighted sensation upon her side was the at rest arm of Ignis, the hunter assassin and advisor to the King of Lucis who had felt her movements and acted in his peaceful slumber as his arm moved more inward against her as if to absentmindedly embrace Y/N closer to his chest.

She turned, looking over her shoulder to see that the blind man was very much still asleep or at least she was left to assume given how often he kept his eyes closed to keep the pain of the air away from his damaged sight. Y/N watched him closely and noticed he did appear to still be slumbering as his breathing was heavy—fixated, perhaps—with pleasant dreams or memories. She wanted to move a bit further to face him but Y/N struggled with the tempting thought as she was reminded the man was a light sleeper and seemed to be aware of everything even if he played dead in a sense. For the time being, Y/N merely rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked at the nearby clock to notice the hour.

Nearly nine in the morning—six minutes till to be exact. No wonder Y/N felt so exhausted as it was still early to her. Knowing that they would soon come to port at Niflheim’s docks given the day, she sighed heavily to herself. Seven days hardly felt like enough as it were just to enjoy in the peace and quiet on the ship. It was the sixth day (as she had been reluctantly counting down after the third) and Y/N knew tomorrow morning would be when they would depart from the vessel and lead her to escort Ignis and Prompto into enemy territory without getting anybody in trouble.

 _One more day…_  Y/N thought to herself, turning around finally to get a better look at Ignis who remained asleep much to her surprise with how much she was moving.

His arm remained lazily upon her side, the muscles seeming to twitch against Y/N’s bare skin as if to threaten in the single movement to wake but he did not. Perhaps he just realized where he was and what was around him so Ignis didn’t feel threatened. Either way, Y/N wasn’t sure how to feel about it…if she should feel relief he felt so relaxed about her or worried that she had numbed his senses during such a time.

Being able to look at him as this, she couldn’t help but smile really. His dirty blond hair had fallen about his features, nearly making it impossible to see his eyes a bit. She never truly realized at times how long his hair really was since he kept it slicked back when he was awake. In the past several days, Y/N got a good look at his morning routines as Ignis appeared to feel more comfortable about her, so she got the rare chance to see him unkempt from time to time.

Cautiously, Y/N moved her fingers about the messy strands to try and get a better view of his eyes and the damage done upon them. The scar on the left was massive and while she cringed at the sight, she merely did so in wonder of how painful it truly was to endure such a heavy consequence just to save someone you loved.  _You really are a reckless idiot_ , she thought to herself with a fretful frown.  _I know I can make you promise not to be so again on my behalf, but…I know you’ll break that promise if it means any of us may die._

Given how Ignis spoke highly and compassionate of his companions, Y/N was no fool.  They were his friends…his family—Prompto, this Gladiolus character who had gone missing with King Noctis—and according to Ignis, after the attack on Insomnia years ago, they were the only family he had at current as he lost his uncle and parents in that dreadful and merciless attack. While she would be intent to believe her life would be of little value on the scale, Y/N had to remind herself that Ignis did nearly die on her behalf just to protect her as he saw her as a minimal threat—someone he pitied given the fear that seemed to weigh her every step and confessed in later days that he saw good in her regardless of her actions.

Finding relaxation back upon the stiff mattress of the bed, Y/N moved closer to the sleeping advisor. As her bare body moved toward his own, her eyes widened in a brief moment realizing he was asleep but very much  _awake_  in other areas. Sighing to herself in fake frustration, she tried to not disturb Ignis and cautiously moved her legs elsewhere so as not to encourage the idea even if it was literally jabbing her right near her stomach.  _You’d think I’d be used to that by now with how often I wake up to it lately…_  Y/N thought in another means to be annoyed yet playful.

Ignis’ excuse for the act in which he couldn’t control when sleeping was that he wasn’t used to sleeping beside a woman—clothed or otherwise—so it provoked the response unknowingly to even him. It was an obvious embarrassment to the advisor so Y/N tried not to comment on it often unless aiming to please him to where he could relax and find comfort.

She remained on her side, admiring the hunter as he slept. Not able to resist the temptation however, Y/N did inch a bit closer to kiss upon his lower lip that had been scarred in his past actions. The simple act was enough to make Ignis swallow audibly in the still quiet of the room, his lower lip moving from the tender kiss that he had adjusted to receiving at random.

“Y/N…?” Ignis questioned groggily, the heavily scarred eye opened for the first time in awhile in the lightless room that her own had adjusted to. Y/N could just see it through the thick tresses that nearly blanketed it.

“Yes, I am here,” she spoke to settle him as her fingers continued to toy with his messy hair with tender care. “Did I wake you just now?”

He moved, retracting his embrace for the time being as he stretched to pop a few weary muscles into place with a heavy sigh expelling through his nostrils. “Indeed, but it is just fine, my dear.” Ignis brushed his hand across his forehead, sweeping the long strands from his face as they were beginning to tickle the slope of his nose and near his cheeks. “I am sure the hour is late.”

Y/N sputtered humorously at his comment. “Just a little after nine in the morning, really. Early, if you ask me.” Her exposed chest found comfort upon his own, fingers continuing to journey through his unkempt style.

“And you are awake?” Ignis asked with an equally mischievous grin and tone to his words. “Mm, consider me quite surprised, darling.”

“You are losing your touch, Ignis,” Y/N scoffed as she stole another kiss from him. Her cheek found rest upon his chest, listening to the pleasant beating sound of his heart. “I even moved and you didn’t seem to notice.”

Ignis’ brow rose and fell, shrugging at her playful remark as he took care in rubbing another spot just under his eye that was bothering him. “Can you blame me, Y/N? I was not expecting the many hours of… _exploration_  to happen as it did last night.”

Y/N lost count of how long they had truly been at it as well. While the days and nights had been full of conversation and a bit of planning in regards to what they would do upon their arrival in Niflheim, Ignis was trying to make use of the hours the two of them had alone. While Y/N had been used to the simplicity of their sensual times together, it seemed as the nights went onward Ignis was willing to try and drag them out a bit longer and try a few new things in order to know what worked best and what excited her the least. To Y/N it was delightful even if making her feel like his personal science project. She had found the week to be eye opening in a few ways but also aided her body in adjusting to the man who had taken and claimed her heart. What used to be horribly painful in terms of adjusting to his entire size being inside of her became an easy and welcome fit and like magic, the blind man appeared to become aware of what Y/N needed in terms of pleasure.

“I wasn’t watching the time,” Y/N whispered as she kissed his jaw line. “All I know was that was quite a bit you unleashed last night.” She paused, eyes shifting upward to count once more. “Four if I remember right.” Ignis quietly allowed a small laugh to pass his lips, his eye searching the darkness for where Y/N’s voice came from. “Wasn’t too painful for you any, was it?”

“Not at all,” he murmured as if to express his exhaustion still in that single reply. “Started to feel a bit tender near the end there, so that’s why I stopped, but I also didn’t wish to run you ragged.”

“The maid is going to complain when she has to clean our room,” Y/N joked, smiling shortly after as Ignis’ chest shuttered from a laugh he expelled a bit more vocally than the last.

“I’ll clean up a majority of the mess before we depart the room for breakfast.” His palm rubbed Y/N’s exposed back as if to mutely encourage the idea of the two of them waking further for the day. “We best get ready for such an event as it closes down at eleven.”

“I’d rather sleep than eat, really,” Y/N murmured with a recognizable whine on her words, chin remaining firm on Ignis’ chest.

Playfully, Ignis slapped Y/N’s backside before gesturing to where he knew the bedroom’s washroom was. “If I have to drag you in there myself, love, I will.” A groan passed Y/N’s lips as she reluctantly moved out from under the covers. “You are going to eat, and I will not have the maid seeing you as this.” When he felt the weight on him and the bed lessen, Ignis moved his feet to the floor as well though doing his best to allow the covers to at least preserve his dignity as he remained sitting on the bedside before fondling for his underwear he knew he tossed on the floor at some point. “Besides, we best meet with Prompto and Sal and see if anything new has been uncovered in regards to his Majesty and Gladio.”

“If anything were found, Sal would have told Prompto I am sure,” reminded Y/N as she cared little for clothing herself since her partner was indeed blind. “She may appear to be sidetracked with weird feelings for him, but she would do anything at this point to keep him happy, and I am sure she knows how much this King of yours means to him.”

Ignis hummed in thought as he fixed his boxers into place upon his lower hips. “Jealous, are we?”

While the question was merely curious in nature, Y/N couldn’t help but grumble a bit irritably at the very idea she would be jealous something she made with her best friend in mind was growing attached to someone else. She knew it seemed petty, but trying to deny that was the truth would get her nowhere as Ignis always caught onto even her minor fibs. “Sulista was never really interested in much of anybody, and I think because of her stature, nobody really returned the interest much either, so I was kind of used to having her all to myself when she was alive,” Y/N explained, rubbing her upper arms with a soft sigh at the confession. “She was a muscular woman, stood quite tall—five feet, eleven inches or something, I think—and the fact she carried around this enormous shield and battle axe at times that only she had the strength to handle, everyone was kind of intimidated by her even if she was a gentle giant.” Y/N’s hands went to her neck, resting her palms lazily at the sides as her fingertips drummed idly in thought on the back. “I guess when she went to becoming a machine, I just assumed nobody would really catch her interest, but this Prompto guy found a way.”

“Relationships are surprising in that way,” commented Ignis from obvious knowledge of the subject with all things considered. He moved across the room, outstretching his hand to find her in the darkness where his hand came to rest upon Y/N’s shoulder in a comforting hold. “You tend to find light in someone when you least expect it and within the most unlikely of people.”

Y/N’s smile twitched to one side, her hand resting upon his own to which provoked him to hold her grasp tightly. “While I am jealous, I do want her happy but…she’s a machine. She can love Prompto as much as she wants to, but a computer cannot truly express the right emotions back to someone; especially not in a physical sense.”

“Prompto didn’t tell you fully of his story from being in Niflheim, did he?” Ignis asked after a pregnant pause.

The words made it sound like they held some weight of sorts that Y/N wasn’t used to. She turned, gazing up at the glossy look of Ignis. “No…you interrupted that part, and he never continued with it.”

Ignis nodded, recalling that moment days ago much to his dismay. “It is not my station to speak of my companion’s secrets unless it is urgent, so I will say…ask him again in private, and he may tell you.”

Y/N waited for more to be said. What was so important about Prompto’s origin story that could help her computer? Before she could hope to ask further, Ignis nudged her gently towards the bathroom door ahead.

“The maid will be here soon, so we best hurry now,” he insisted, letting Y/N go to wash up first so he could tend to the mess in the room in the meantime.

As expected, Sal hadn’t encountered any incoming messages or news articles in regards to Niflheim having the King of Lucis. Y/N frowned, feeling a bit frustrated and oddly misplaced in terms of being fed any information whatsoever when it came to her superiors who were supposed to care. Did they truly not…? Did they honestly just leave her for dead? The least they could have done was at least contact her by now even if they thought she was. They treated her worse than they did their MTs.

“Something wrong, Y/N?” Ignis asked, provoking her to look over at the advisor at her name being called. “You’ve been so focused on Sal that I’ve not heard you eat much or even speak a word.”

She sighed, turning off her device and putting her away into her jean jacket pocket. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

Ignis could sense there was more to it than that but given the fact the population was about them in the dining hall, he knew better than to pry and merely cut the last few pieces of his eggs before chewing them.

Y/N looked over the circular table at the other blond she was traveling with, noticing he was toying with something on his phone. “Sal hasn’t said anything important in the past few days…has she, Prompto?”

He shook his head, mouth too full to really respond properly. “Neh, we’ve just been chatting here and there,” Prompto finally answered (though took the time to cover his mouth as he didn’t want the small remnants of food to be seen when he spoke). “Trust me, if there was any information on Noct and Gladio she had given me, I would be banging on your door regardless of the hour.”

Ignis departed from the table in that moment, not saying exactly where he’d be going but Y/N assumed it could be to get more food or to go to the bathroom. She didn’t think it was important to ask. Regardless, she found herself alone at the table with Prompto and the words Ignis spoke of earlier began to toy with her a bit. Her curiosity ushered her words from her throat. “Umm…back at the camp when we last spoke to each other…” Prompto looked over at Y/N, brow wrinkled in wonder of where this was going to go. “You said that you sometimes don’t feel real but your friends give you some sort of validation in that.” His blue eyes darted away as if ashamed he let those words get that far from him. “Wh…Was that some sort of philosophical bullshit you were feeding me or something else?” Y/N asked with a small tenor of a laugh to coax the gunman into talking.

Again, Prompto looked about the room as if worried if he spoke the truth someone would have him arrested. “I am…” His fingers tapped idly upon his glass, an exasperated sigh following shortly after as he lowered his head in surrender. “…a clone…An MT that was made in a facility in Niflheim.”

Y/N’s eyes darted back and forth as if expecting this to be some sort of joke. “What…?” she asked with another quiet laugh harboring the word. “An…An MT? But…I’ve never known MTs to really be sentient.”

Prompto moved his right hand onto the table and pulled back the black glove and sleeve to expose a barcode Y/N recognized as a factory imprint on most MTs. He only let it show for a moment before concealing it quickly once more.

“But…how?” Y/N asked in disbelief. “I’ve never known any to be cloned and installed with any personality as it made them more deadly, not able to feel compassion for the enemy and the like.” She witnessed that her words were doing more harm than good for Prompto in terms of allowing him to open up as this. “I-I’m sorry,” Y/N quickly apologized, looking away in shame. “I guess there was a reason you were created in that facility, and I won’t ask why as I can…kind of guess…” She paused, tapping her fork on the napkin before her. “Hu…guess Niflheim kind of fucked up with us both then, yeah? Sent you to ruin them from the inside only to have you befriend them and they sent me to do the same only to have me fall in love with the King’s advisor.”

“Send someone else to do your dirty work, and I guess you get mixed results,” Prompto responded with a forced laugh, trying to find light in the situation.

Y/N turned to him, smiling best she was able as well. “You chose humanity, love, and friendship over the alternative, and I can easily see why they view you as human—because you are.”

His blue eyes darted over to catch her sight, a weary smile of thanks showing upon his features. “Why did you want to know?”

“Iggy said something to me in private about asking you again when I was talking about…!” Y/N’s eyes widened as she realized what he was trying to imply. “That’s what he meant! So there—by the Astrals, I am so blind and stupid!”

Prompto gave her a funny look from across the table, shrugging to himself as he wasn’t sure where any of this was going. “Glad that got clarified,” he spoke jokingly.

Y/N dug into her pocket to pull out Sal again. “No, all along I had the ability to bring her back to life, and I never even thought to try and use the facility to clone Sulista! I merely made my own without thinking!” She breathed out in relief, wanting to nearly kiss Prompto for being a genius in his own roundabout way even if it was Ignis who suggested it indirectly.

“Yeah but…you’re missing one key thing here, Y/N—the facility is owned by your now sworn enemy,” Prompto reluctantly spoke, hating to halt her excitement in the matter. “You can go in and try to make her with them totally clueless as to what’s going on, but there’s no guarantee that’s going to work out well for us as clones take months to make. We cannot wait months to free Noct and Gladio.”

Realizing the hiccup in her plans, Y/N’s shoulders faltered and she sighed to herself. “True…” Again, however, her ideas came back to fruition. “But I can get Sal to download the basic plans for making one of my own!”

“An entire facility?” Prompto asked, jerking his head back at the irrational thought. “And here I thought I was the spontaneous one.”

The Templar rolled her eyes. “Not an entire facility, you goof! I just need the basics, and that’s just a general tube for the clone to grow and be fed the personality and data that it needs—which I have—!” Y/N gestured again to Sal. “—and a machine that can download and feed basic protocols and ensure the proper cellular growth as time progresses…yeah,  ** _yeah!_**  I think I can do this!” Her hands gripped onto the machine, looking at the flawless silver cover not even thinking about the true reasons for doing it. “I can finally bring her back!”

“Well, as long as you got this covered and you think it’s something that’s doable…” Prompto smiled once more, gesturing to her with his fork. “…we’ve got your back.”

Y/N returned the grin, nodding at the gunman. “Thanks. I appreciate that.” However, upon looking down at the device, she was reminded of her own inner plan that she needed to do in order to actually get to Gralea before them if possible. “Tell Ignis I am heading back to the room when he returns,” spoke Y/N as she took to her feet. “I’m uh…I’m going to look over some reports and see if I cannot find anything.”

“Sure,” spoke Prompto as he slipped another bite of the pancakes in his mouth though his tone implied he was still a bit skeptical of Y/N and her being alone with that device.

Y/N dismissed it and quickly retreated to the bedroom she shared with Ignis.

Upon arriving, she shut the door in haste behind her and booted up Sal with a hesitant desire to speak; however, she knew if she sat on this, it would look all the more incriminating if she didn’t confess her position to a degree and that she was alive. “Sal…contact the Grand Master, Ivayle…”

“Processing,” Sal spoke but with a curious mannerism as she wasn’t sure what even Y/N was up to.

Sitting down on the bedside, Y/N waited nervously for Ivayle to pick up—a part of her hoping she wouldn’t at all.

“Color me surprised,” spoke the all too familiar tone that held a hint of condescension in it. “Y/N…and here I thought the Lucian dogs left you for dead after our attack on Lestallum.”

She tried to smile and find comfort in her officer’s words even if it tasted of insipid ash. It was odd, a woman she had grown to respect regardless of her harsh ways she had suddenly become paranoid with and untrusting of. Should Y/N speak the truth that the Lucians spared her and she was traveling with them? “H-Hi, Grand Master,” Y/N stuttered, moving a stray hair from her features. “I’m sorry I was unable to contact you but I was—.”

“—Spare me the pointless dribble, Y/N,” the raven haired woman demanded as her sky-blue eyes pierced through the screen in a way that felt like she wished her looks could kill and make Y/N’s heart stop dead in her chest. “While your presence is astounding and appreciated as you caused quite the distraction in allowing us a chance at grabbing the King, you better have a good explanation as to why you draw breath and have the nerve to contact us now.”

Y/N inhaled sharply, hoping it went unnoticed. “You have King Noctis then?” she probed, hoping to learn what she could at moment.

Ivayle grinned in a twisted sort of satisfaction. “Under our control at presence, yes…as is the Ring of the Lucii.” She looked away, still revealing in the glow of victory it seemed. “It is surprising what little devices one can create in order to bind one to our will.”

She stilled her tongue realizing she almost demanded her commanding office to tell her what they had done to the King. “I…I’m relieved then,” Y/N spoke halfheartedly. “The war seems to tip in our favor again.”

The woman’s grin weakened and she turned back into the ever unappreciative mother figure that Y/N had come to recognize her as from time to time. “So your information you’ve gathered is pretty much useless unless you can tell me you’ve gained more knowledge than you intended when draining their phones’ data.”

“Y-Yes!” Y/N spoke in haste as she had mulled over it in private from time to time when alone. “I know more about the Glaives, the Assassins and their whereabouts, and I know the weaknesses within the City of Insomnia.” She hesitated, biting at her lower lip in wonder of what else to add. “Also, I…I’m on my way back to Niflheim with two of King Noctis’ companions—both work as assassins and are part of his guard…one even being the Hand of the King.” She felt ill confessing that. The very idea she was willing to pretend that Ignis was her foe was more than she could manage after the several days the two spent together.

“Really?” Ivayle questioned, head tilted back just a bit as if to try and get a better read on the situation. “More of that idiot’s lapdogs are on the way here?” Her hand to her mouth, she stood in idle thought. “I suppose if we capture them the fool will stop trying to break free of our control. How are you doing this? Are you their prisoner—were you indeed foolish enough to get caught, Y/N?”

Y/N released a shaky breath as she gripped onto Sal tightly. “One of them thinks I love him, so they’re coming willingly with me…thinking I am going to let them into Gralea to search for their friends they believe you have at current.”

Ivayle grinned a demented sort of grin once more that made Y/N’s stomach knot up. “So you are actually more capable than you look,” the Grand Master muttered to herself but it was loud enough for the Templar woman to hear the spiteful words. “Fine then—let them come, and when you feel the moment is right to strike, Y/N…contact us again, and we will find you to bring you all into custody.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Y/N responded with a nod before ending the transmission.

The room was quiet until Sal’s voice module blipped to life. “Was that truly wise?”

“Don’t ask me that, Sal—you’re starting to sound like Ignis,” Y/N chastised, easily hearing that phrase in his tongue more than Sal’s.

“As I cannot stand the man, I will still point out that he would be right to ask the same thing,” continued the device. “They have verified they have King Noctis; where this Gladio fellow is, I do not know as he wasn’t mentioned. Will you let Prompto or Ignis in on this plan of yours?”

“No,” Y/N spoke firmly with a nasally sigh. “N-Not right away, no.”

“Why not?” Sal questioned eagerly as if fearing for everyone’s safety now.

“Because I have to see how this pans out first since I just spoke out of my ass to keep my commanding officer from suspecting anything,” Y/N answered with a slightly risen voice. “I don’t want them killed; especially if what I have just done may put them in danger…”

“Then tell them, Y/N!” Sal seemed to demand. “If they know what you’re up to they will know what to prepare for.”

Y/N’s frustrations began to rise at her computer not willing to listen. “Let me just plan it all in my head right now, Sal! When I have an answer, I’ll fill them in…” She sighed, lowering her head with regret. “Besides, if they are told and they are prepared for the attack and the betrayal, Ivayle will know and sense their eagerness to be caught if they are indeed bad actors and none of us will be allowed to walk the city to find out the truth of the others or to set them free. If they think I betrayed them…maybe it will be more realistic and we’ll all be safe in the end?”

Sal’s vocals attempted an annoyed growl. “You do not know that, Y/N. You are gambling too much and quite recklessly, I might add.”

“What did I just tell you about letting me think this over first?” the Templar woman hissed, her lips thinning in frustration.

“Fine, but I still think you’re making a mistake,” spoke Sal honestly. “What about King Noctis? Will you tell them of that at least?”

“I will, even if I want Ignis to not panic nor Prompto,” Y/N confessed between the two of them.

“They panic every day whether you see it or not,” reminded the handheld. “Their voices harbor a secret of pain and concern for their friend and King. I hear it nearly every day. At the very least, do not hide that from them.”

Y/N sighed, lowering her head from the heaviness on her body that was soon being weighed upon her. She wanted to play the sides to see what would be wisest. Ivayle cornered her in that conversation and Y/N had no idea what to even say without incriminating herself. If she said she was their prisoner, they would be attacked on site. If she expressed she wasn’t, more than just a fake love game would probably have to come into play that would make it all come crumbling down around them and they would all be imprisoned or worse.

Penalty for betrayal was death…Y/N knew she would die either way as the truth would have to come to the surface at some point in the eyes of the Empire and her superiors.


	12. Chapter 12

Ignis was not truly in much shock than before when Y/N confessed that she contacted her Grand Master and got confirmation that the Empire did indeed have Noctis. Prompto’s fists clenched at his sides, head lowered at the idea his friend was in the enemy’s hands.

“At…least we’re going in the right direction then,” spoke Prompto in a tone heavy with sorrow and frustration at not having been there for Noctis.

“Did they tell you anything else, Y/N?” Ignis probed, turning to the Templar woman in concern. “Did they say anything about Gladio?”

Sighing softly to herself, Y/N fondled with Sal in her possession. “No, I…I didn’t think to ask as I know Ivayle—she’s too attentive for her own good and would catch on that I was asking for your sake and not my own.”

“So that’s who we’re up against?” Ignis questioned. His arms folded before his chest, still keeping his blind sight in Y/N’s direction. “I’ve heard of this Grand Master of yours but only on rare occasions. Is there anything you can say about her that may prepare us for the fight ahead?”

Y/N looked from Ignis to Prompto, noticing the gunman was staring at her awkwardly again. She hadn’t seen a look like that since back when they first encountered each other. It was as if he was judging her every word and movement again and she couldn’t understand why. “Only that you should watch yourselves,” Y/N answered honestly as she pocketed Sal into her jean jacket pocket. “Ivayle watches everybody’s movement and if a single look of your eye so much as betrays you, she’ll have you beheaded.” Thinking back on her conversation with her superior, Y/N flinched. There were so many things she stuttered and tripped over…now she was beginning to pray the Grand Master didn’t catch onto it.

“You didn’t tell her anything that would get us in trouble…did you?” Prompto probed, hands resting on his belt as his blue eyes stared long and hard at Y/N in curiousness.

The Templar woman shook her head. “I told them that I was willingly along for the ride and pretending to be in love with one of you so that they wouldn’t attack us the moment we exit the boat tomorrow morning.”

Ignis’ blank stare found Y/N in the room as he looked down upon her with a business like frown as if hoping that to truly be a lie to keep cover for them all to enter Niflheim without problems. “And what course of action are you arranging without us at present, my dear?”

Her lower lip quivered as she could hear the uncertainty and a bit of upset in Ignis’ words that she didn’t think she would just departing with that information. “Nothing,” Y/N horribly lied only to watch as Ignis’ frown deepened. She rolled her eyes with a sigh of annoyance at how perceptive a blind man could be. “Prompto, can you give us a moment alone?”

That weirdly unbalanced look between untrusting and trusting remained ever prevalent on Prompto’s features. “Why can’t I be involved in this? If you’re setting up a plan or something, I have the right to be here.”

Not sure how to dismiss him so she could speak privately with Ignis, she lightly tapped the advisor’s arm as if to encourage him to speak in her stead. Sighing in annoyance at the idea he had to relieve Prompto from the room, Ignis did as he was mutely asked by Y/N. “Retire to your quarters, Prompto,” Ignis urged. “I will fill you in on everything later.”

“Ba—Wha…!” Prompto grumbled to himself but did as he was asked, turning on his heels to leave the room and depart to his own with Sal in his possession as Y/N allowed him to keep her still.

Hearing his companion no longer in the vicinity, Ignis turned back to Y/N with a narrowing of his misty eyes. “You better have a good explanation for this bit, darling.” His words were hard, painfully as untrusting as Prompto’s mixed look earlier.

“Why are you so pissed?” Y/N asked, shaking her head in utter confusion of his response.

“You have compromised our security in the matter,” Ignis reminded her, voice rising ever slightly as he turned to her completely to express his disproval all the more. “Now the Empire knows we’re arriving and while they may not attack on sight, they will keep their eyes and ears open to our presence. More than ever, we will have to keep to the shadows and sparingly tend to shops and hotels, avoiding most towns.”

“But if I didn’t contact them and they saw me, they would know I was working with you!” Y/N expressed heatedly in her defense, standing on her toes to try and get near Ignis’ face as the man was taller than she. “The moment they see me walking around with men of the Crownsguard unbound they would have us all arrested and nobody would be left to get us free let alone your king!”

Ignis’ hands grabbed onto her shoulders so tightly that it stunned Y/N. She had never felt such a desperate hold before that sensed of an awkward mix of anger and sorrow. “Y/N, honestly now—what are you planning?”

His words were more damning than he realized, making Y/N frown at how hurtful they were the more she replayed them in her mind. “You…You don’t trust me, do you?” she asked with a quivering exhale of disbelief. “After all we’ve been through, you still hold doubt about me…?”

“I want to trust you, Y/N, but you acted without consulting me in regards to an important matter,” Ignis reminded her painfully. The idea she had several opportunities to betray him and didn’t made part of his guard still remain as he knew what Y/N lacked in brawn she made up in brains, but it was hard wishing to build that wall completely back into place as he didn’t want to shut her out again and think less of her. Love was indeed a powerful tool to use against even your enemy. “Do you truly love me or is this some façade you play around me?”

“Ignis…!” Y/N gasped in hurt equal to his own. Her hands grabbed upon his cheeks, trying to insist his sightless gaze to her. “For years I’ve never offered my heart or body to anybody but you, and even to my own captor I wouldn’t do such a stupid thing even in a means to escape as that is the most precious thing I have, and I would only want to give it to someone I love and care for!” She felt Ignis sigh a form of reprieve, the air blanketing her features as he did so. Her fingers curled before moving to his hairline to try and sooth him further. “I have to ask that you trust me in this, okay? No matter what I say or what I do in the eyes of the Empire, I will  ** _always_**  love you…” When he didn’t bother to respond, merely gasp in a quiet way to her confession, Y/N moved closer to kiss his lips affectionately to remind his body and heart that what she said was true.

Embracing her tightly as a response, Ignis accepting the affectionate gesture. While he wasn’t able to respond as heatedly as he wished, he still showed his love for her and acceptance in the matter. He hated ambiguity and while Y/N was willing to shroud herself in a veil of uncertainty still, Ignis had to remind himself that it might be for the best given the current situation. His lips parted from hers, a small wisp of air passing from his mouth once more in a means to sigh. “Do not gamble on the success of your own plans, Y/N,” he murmured quietly between them. The warmth of his touch found her cheek, his thumb caressing her lovingly. “If you require our aid, please…tell us, and we will protect you.”

Y/N nodded against his touch, keeping his palm there against her face so he could very well feel it. More than anything, she wanted to tell Ignis what she had in mind, but she was worried what further upset that may have in the grand scheme of things. She loved him—that much was more than true—and even if it meant lying to him and siding with the Empire once more, she had to see to it one of them was around to save the King of Lucis.

–

It was supposed to be home and for a long time, it was, but Y/N never felt more an outsider the moment she stepped foot onto Niflheim’s soil. As Ignis suggested, they mostly kept out of sight from most of the shops and or towns unless it was absolutely imperative to progress to buy anything or sleep somewhere beyond setting up camp for the next few days. The days and nights were harsh but the chocobos made the journey a lot less cumbersome in the grand scheme of things.

“So, uh…how exactly are we going to get into Gralea with just the three of us?” Prompto questioned days later as he knew they would eventually be upon their destination even if by bird.

“Y/N, do you know of any entry points that the Empire would be less aware of our comings and goings?” Ignis asked after a pause to think on the best course of action.

Y/N tried to focus hard on the thought, finding it a bit of a challenge as her stomach felt like it was in knots and making her nauseous. “Umm…There’s a few sewer systems I am sure we can make use of near the east area of Gralea. They empty into the more slum sections of the city where it’s easier to go unnoticed for a bit. Parts of those underground sewage systems were used as a haven for townsfolk and soldiers when the capital was overrun by monsters.” Her arm moved to her stomach, trying to combat the overwhelming urge to be ill. “They’ve been abandoned and haven’t really been used much in terms of city business since the daemons were finally cleared out and controlled years ago.”

Ignis nodded at Y/N’s response. “We’ll see to using that as our means then. If you can think up another plan in regards to getting into the palace itself, it would be much obligated at this point.”

Prompto shifted his attention to the Templar as he was riding mostly parallel to Y/N on his rented bird. Noticing the uneasy look on her face and how in pain she appeared, he couldn’t help but question it. “You okay, Y/N?”

Ignis’ head turned at Prompto’s question, not able to pinpoint that something may be wrong with her to begin with as his mind had been overrun with thoughts and plans in regards to saving Noctis and finding out where Gladiolus may very well be.

“Yeah,” she whispered in response even if she knew Ignis was listening. “Stomach has just been a mess since we left the boat days ago. I am sure all of this moving around is just making me queasy and what’s to come isn’t making it much better…”

Halting his bird that was following the snow covered road on instinct, Ignis turned to Y/N’s confession. “Do you know of any camping sites nearby we could perhaps retire for the day and formulate a better course of action in all of this?”

“There are a few, but would you really want to camp out in this cold?” Y/N asked as most of Niflheim was covered in snow and ice.

“It is our only option as of current,” Ignis reminded her, trying not to raise a debate over what she had done in the past without his counsel.

She knew he wasn’t going to be outright about it but Y/N was still aware he was upset with her. “There’s a spot just up ahead not far from a cave, if I remember right.” Pulling her chocobo ahead of Ignis, Y/N began to lead the way so as to guide his bird a bit better.

Prompto kept a close watch on Y/N. Not because of distrusting her intentions but because her words sounded forced and a bit false in terms of what was making her sick. It didn’t come across as a means to deceive in a foul way to him, but it still sounded as though Y/N didn’t wish to distress anybody over her illness that must have been around longer than she was letting on. “Guess you don’t go out here often, hu?”

“I never had a reason to in the past,” Y/N admitted as the birds continued to trudge through the snowy terrain. “Daemons were nearly everywhere and while I had my machines to protect me I had little care to venture onto the battlefield unless accompanied with someone which was…never after my friend died.” Her head lowered dejectedly. “Sadly, the daemons here are far more in numbers and worse when it deals with aggression if you compare Lucis and Niflheim side by side.”

“Well,” began Prompto with a shrug, “we’re with you now, and you seem to be handling it okay.”

Y/N laughed quietly to herself, looking over her shoulder at the gunman. “I have daemon hunters, assassins, and men of the Crownsguard beside me,” she reminded him. “I think I am in the best hands gil could buy me.”

Trying to help pitch the tents in the cold weather was brutal. Y/N did her best to aid Ignis and Prompto but her fingers, even through her gloves, were starting to lock up at times. When Ignis felt her stalling and even hissing in pain during simple acts, he insisted she move herself by the fire to which she took her place and tried to settle her upset stomach. She thought the nausea would pass as it had before in the past but even at the mere mention of food, Y/N felt it worsen slightly. She tried not to make a fuss of anything and attempted to eat the food Ignis had prepared, but the Templar was only able to manage a small portion of it.

All during the time at the campfire, Y/N hadn’t taken notice of how closely Prompto was watching her. Honestly, her mind was elsewhere. “Are you going to eat anything, Y/N?” he asked, catching the woman by surprise and a bit in annoyance as she didn’t want Ignis to be alerted to her inability to eat even his food.

Ignis paused in his own meal, turning his head in the direction of the conversation nearby. “Having troubles?” he questioned, brow rising with his tone as if wondering he may have prepared her food incorrectly someway.

Y/N looked back down at the fish and rice and then back to Ignis with a brief smile even if she knew he wouldn’t be able to see it. “No, I-I’m fine…” She knew it was a lie he could detect but Y/N was too lazy to care to correct it. However, she did turn to Prompto and give him a scolding, quiet look as if to demand he be silent about what she was eating and not eating so as not to offend or worry the advisor.

“He’d find out anyway,” Prompto mouthed more than outwardly said in his own defense.

When Ignis wasn’t paying attention and Prompto had finished his own meal and went about the area taking pictures, Y/N did her best to feed the dinner she had remaining on her plate to the chocobo she had rented so Ignis wouldn’t be the wiser. She was one of the first to head into her tent she was sharing with Ignis while Prompto took his own with Sal still in his possession (and was keen to keep onto her after the weird teetering act Y/N had been performing as of late in regards to where her loyalties resided.)

Hearing the flap of the tent move out of place, Y/N didn’t bother to stir from where she was resting. While the ground did little in terms of comfort for her, it was far better than sitting upright near a fireplace and was a bit relaxing. The sound of Ignis undressing just a bit was audible but still gave her little reason to rouse until she felt his body lay behind her, his hand cupping her chin to try and urge her attention to him.

“Y/N?”

Sighing softly as a means to sooth her still unsettled stomach, Y/N turned to acknowledge him and his touch. “Mmm…?”

His fingers tenderly outlined her jaw line and migrated to her lips. “Are you alright? Not bothering with your meal is something you usually do when troubled.”

A small breath past her lips as she moved to her back. “Once this is all over, I am sure I’ll be back to normal.” Those words felt heavier than Y/N meant them to. She wanted this to be over…She wanted this war to end so that she could love the man she wanted to without something as trivial as birthright getting in the way, but Y/N knew that would have to wait till after King Noctis was saved at the very least.

Ignis’ palm moved to her stomach, making Y/N awkwardly tense for a mere moment till relaxing once more under his caring touch. “Did you need me to get you anything then?”

Y/N shook her head at his attentive demeanor, still not used to someone caring as much after all those years she felt she’d gone without Sulista. Her lips planted a warming kiss upon his own to try and ease the advisor’s concerns. “I’ll be fine,” she whispered, fingers trailing through his tresses to lightly massage his scalp. Taking Ignis’ gentle smile and nod as acceptance in the matter, Y/N attempted to move to her side once more to focus on sleep as the nausea in her stomach was subsiding finally. However, upon doing so, Y/N felt Ignis’ palm shepherd its way up and under the shirt of his she wore to trace upon her skin. Y/N rolled her eyes and sighed in a playful manner before looking over her shoulder where he was. “You must have some weird fetish in wanting to get caught, don’t you?” Normally, the situation would have been reversed, but if Y/N were honest with herself, she hadn’t thought to be sexual inclined given their surroundings and what was ahead.

“We’ve not been able to do anything in the past several days as we’re never alone,” Ignis reminded Y/N, his touch stalling just near her breasts. “But, if you’re unwell and not up to the matter, I will not enforce the endeavor.”

“We only have a thin piece of paper separating us from Prompto,” Y/N reminded him in a quiet whisper. “When I was teasing you back in Galdin I was merely doing so to watch you get annoyed—I wouldn’t have actually done it.”

Ignis chuckled to himself. “For some reason, I am only inclined to believe part of that, my dear.”

Y/N again rolled her eyes in a teasing manner. “Again, you’re weirdly perceptive for a blind man.” It was true. Given how intoxicating it was to connect with someone she came to care for in the past several days she would have gladly gone for it if Ignis allowed her to. It was like being offered a drug that you couldn’t say ‘no’ to after awhile.

“Love is an addiction that is hard to escape,” Ignis confessed breathlessly upon Y/N’s cheek as he kissed her there, letting his words leave a residual imprint upon her. “You’ll just have to be quiet so Prompto won’t hear us, and I’ll have my means of pacifying you should you become too vocal.” His promise resided upon the nape of her neck as he in kind kissed her there, lips moving together in a sensual pinch to pluck at the skin before moving his teeth against her flesh as well.

“F-Fuck…!” Y/N breathed out quietly as Ignis’ hand found comfort in fondling her breast, holding them in a harsh grasp that actually made her cringe more than find delight in the sensation given how sensitive they had become as of late. She tried to ignore it for awhile until the painful groping became too much, to which Y/N grabbed Ignis’ wrist and ushered his touch elsewhere—between her legs.

“A bit needy, aren’t we?” Ignis asked in a labored breath near Y/N’s ear making her wish the positions were flipped so she could have easy access to the one spot she knew was the most sensitive to him after he confessed it back in Galdin Quay.

“Y-You’re a fine one to talk, four-eyes,” Y/N spat playfully as she felt him comply regardless (much to her relief). His fingers moved at her command, sliding past her curly mound and finding salvation upon her clit to which ushered forth a gasp from her that was unexpectedly noisy and sharp.

“Shhh, shhh,” Ignis insisted near Y/N’s ear before moving his hands from her body and urging her onto her hands and knees. “Bite down on something if you must or cover your mouth.”

Moving to the new position, Y/N kept the sleeping bag nearby in case she did have to bite down on something. Ignis’ hands gripped upon her upper thighs as if to steady her, but it was there Y/N felt him urging her to separate her legs just a bit more for him with his thumbs gripping onto the outer flaps of skin to her entrance to pull them a bit more at bay to give him the room he needed. The warmth of the air passing from his mouth made Y/N shiver and her heart beat rapidly, her grip upon the opening of her sleeping bag tightening all the more as she clenched her teeth.

Ignis drank in the intoxicating aroma that he had grown accustomed to in the past several days they had been intimate. It was arousing as it was soothing. To him—a man without sight who had to rely on touch, taste, sound, and smell—it reminded his body and heart that the woman he loved was nearby and ready for him, finding immense pleasure and desire under his simple touch and words. The flat of his tongue graced the lubricated petals of Y/N’s entrance, causing her to whimper and whine as she attempted to silence herself by biting onto the sleeping bag in her possession.

The advisor himself moaned hotly at the taste that dripped onto his tongue, digging the wet muscle in further into her body to where he felt Y/N react by reaching beneath to fondle her own swollen sex to urge herself further into a euphoric state. Instinctively, Y/N even pushed backward upon his probing tongue to get satisfaction at being penetrated. “I-Ignis…b-by the gods…!” she praised when she found the silencing act to be awkwardly exhausting as her body was quivering with a need to be vocal to her partner.

Breaking the string of saliva from his tongue to Y/N’s entrance, Ignis licked his lips before wiping the lubrication from them with his fingertips in a more professional manner. As Y/N was unable to see him from where she was resting, she heard the ever faint sound of fabric being moved about. She knew Ignis was preparing to enter her, making her grip tighten a bit more on the cot beneath her.

Ignis’ hands found hers in the darkness of his vision, the fingers sliding supportively onto her own as he let the head of his swollen erection toy with her entrance. His heavy, warm breathing was close to her ear, exciting her all the more. Y/N moved to at least steal a kiss from his balmy cheek, a grin upon her lips as she moved backward to try and impale herself upon him. “Hurry up already,” she urged teasingly. “D-Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to keep a lady waiting?”

It was unexpected but Ignis’ hand went right for her mouth, concealing her words and actions next as his thighs penned her in place while he ushered himself forward to sheath himself completely within her. “N-No…!” he answered in a strain manner, the warmth of her body making him drunk with ecstasy. “But, I’ve learned how to pacify you quite nicely.” He too was being cheeky as the advisor pushed himself all the way inside of her to where their thighs met, letting the budding sensation sit for a moment as her body ballooned to fit him. Y/N’s screams of delight were muffled against his palm while he gasped and moaned to himself before quieting his words and actions by biting her shoulder in a gentle manner.

Y/N’s words went unheard as she screamed and shook her head like a wild mare unable to control herself at being bridled and ridden but she found the fun in trying to fight back if he was going to be intent on restraining her. However, Ignis caught onto her stunts and his fingers kept their grasp upon her and his teeth lightly pinched her flesh as if to demand in his own way for her to submit. The slapping of his thighs to hers was becoming almost louder than they were, making him slow down in time to where he pushed all the way within her and moved his body in a small circular motion to let her walls feel a pleasurable force in trying to widen a bit more against his length.

She knew she wouldn’t last much longer. With her mouth concealed she couldn’t warn Ignis of her coming orgasm but her body did its best in doing so as the lubrication became immense upon his intruding length, allowing the advisor to feel it every time he exited her for a brief moment added with the subtle squeezing of her walls as if to excite and signal him to release as well.

Feeling the signs and knowing he himself couldn’t combat the sensation much longer, he pushed as far in as possible before letting the warm rush blossom the tension rising in her stomach all the more to where it budded into sweet release as Y/N’s own climax followed behind him.

His mouth slowly departed from her shoulder, Ignis removing his hand to kiss upon Y/N’s cheek as he heard her gasp and pant as quietly as possible. “Are you alright?” he whispered between breaths. “How do you feel?”

Y/N fell partially to her side until Ignis pulled back to allow her to find comfort in the rest of her doing so. “J-Just fine,” she responded, feeling the aftermath trickle a bit between her legs to realize how eager she accidentally made the man just by waiting a few days. Her hand cradled his chin, a mocking Cheshire cat like grin upon her lips. “And you? Feel better now?”

“Indeed,” he whispered with a breathless chuckle as he kissed Y/N’s lips a few more times before trying to aid her in getting comfortable in the chill of the night. He was quiet for a moment, looking over his shoulder at nothing in particular (perhaps to ingest the sounds around him). “And to my relief, I don’t think Prompto heard us.”

“I am sure if he did, we’ll hear about it tomorrow,” Y/N chuckled, moving into her sleeping bag and shifting into Ignis’ arms to at least be beside him as they slept.

The advisor merely hummed at the thought, his arm draping over her side to clasp her nearest hand into his. “Goodnight, my darling. Sleep well.”

“Goodnight, Ignis,” Y/N responded wearily in return. “I love you.” As her eyes closed, she felt his thumb casually stroke the side of her hand while he kissed the back of her head, lulling her to sleep.

–

Y/N woke early before anyone as her stomach was beginning to trouble her yet again as were her thoughts. After she had gotten decent for the day, she silently slipped over into Prompto’s tent to find him still very much asleep with Sal out and in plain view beside him. Biting back her nervousness, she silently slipped inside to grab her device before hurrying back out again to retrieve her chocobo and try to lead it away from the camp.

 _I can’t put them in danger…I just can’t…_  Y/N thought to herself, looking back at the dead campfire and the tents that housed her once sworn enemies.  _It might be better if I merely show up empty handed to the Empire and look as useless as always. Nothing will be out of the ordinary there…_

Feeling her stomach react violently as it had been in the past few days, Y/N groaned as she hunched over with a shake of her head. “Stop it, dammit…! Stop it; stop it!” she demanded quietly again and again as she tried to shake her worries of her condition away.

Y/N did her best to tread far from camp, moving to an area not far from a flat, snowy ridge that overlooked a small ravine with a river at the bottom. Trying to flip open Sal so she could contact the Empire to come and get her, she froze once more as her body made her fall to the nearby rocky formation that could let her catch her breath. Y/N lurched forward, a ragged heaving sound escaping her only to have it withdrawal quickly at the faintest sound that caught her attention near the entry of the woodlands she just came from.

Eyes widening at the sight of the familiar face, she stuttered. “P-Prompto…!” Out of all the people she was traveling with, she expected he would be the least perceptive in her movements.

“Where are you going so early with Sal?” Prompto asked, staying his hand as he wanted answers but he wasn’t about to use force on a woman he saw as a minimal threat.

“I, uh…” Y/N struggled to think of the right thing to say. Should she be honest or deceive him so he wouldn’t be careless on her behalf? Her hand to her neck, she rubbed the stiffness in it away as her teeth clenched from the upset her body was putting her through. “I can’t have either of you risking your life for me, Prompto…but I have to get into the capital city without issues, so I was just going to notify them of my location to get there faster than you both…”

“I can’t say I know your superiors that well but that sounds like a death sentence to me,” expressed Prompto sternly, arms crossing his chest. “Wouldn’t this Grand Master of yours punish you for having us in your sights and then not the next…?”

“She would,” Y/N answered in a mixture of fear and sorrow, hating that she could never seem to do right by that woman regardless. Her eyes shifted back upward to Prompto with a sigh that expressed itself in crystalline vapor on the wind. “But…to save you both, I will withstand it—!” She wasn’t able to hold it back any longer, hand to her mouth the Templar turned and violently vomited the remains of what was in her stomach as her body quivered from the aftermath.

Prompto jumped back, not expecting that sudden response and yet seeming to in some odd sense as he had been watching her closely when Ignis was unable to. “Y/N…!” Hurrying to her side, he tried to steady her after the violent reaction.

“It’s fine! I’m fine!” Y/N lied trying to shoulder the hunter assassin away from her.

He pulled slightly away from Y/N, watching as she shamefully kept her gaze from him as if not wanting to express the truth that could very well be written on her face. “Y/N…” Prompto began again, raising a single brow at her behavior. “…You’re pregnant, aren’t you?”

“No!” she shouted tearfully trying to push Prompto away from her as if the accusation upset her. “No, I’m not! I’m just nauseous! Nothing else!” Her steps circled opposite his, hoping to make him believe her even if she knew the truth days ago and did her best to conceal it.

Prompto could tell why Ignis could easily see past her sometimes, the woman was a horrible liar. “You  ** _are_** …!” When the realization set in, the gunman began to panic slightly as he grabbed onto her upper arms to usher Y/N back the way they came. “We-We gotta get you out of here! We have to get you somewhere else!”

“No!” Y/N demanded once more, managing to move herself out of Prompto’s hold. “If you tell Ignis anything, he’s going to demand I stay out of this, and I cannot be absent from this scenario! I have Sal with me, and the Empire will find me no matter what as they can track her to my location!”

“Then give her to me, so they can track me down instead!” Prompto ordered, motioning towards himself. When Y/N refused, he pleaded with her once more with his hand outstretched, “Give her to me and get out of here! If that Grand Master of yours finds out you’re holding a Lucian’s child—!”

“—She will be  ** _horrendously_**  displeased,” spoke an unfamiliar voice to Prompto in the woodlands nearby.

Y/N’s voice quivered in a gasp as she knew all too well who it was, making her pocket Sal in her jacket and back up towards the chocobo as Prompto kept her covered with his arm outstretched and his gun at the ready.

The raven haired Ivayle stepped forth from the shadows with her spear in hand, a frown of displeasure wrinkling her pale features as the Magitek soldiers joined her to make the two feel even more closed in given the numbers. “You slept with this Lucian dog, Y/N…?” Ivayle questioned, raising her head and looking at the subordinate down the slope of her nose as though she were nothing to her. “I know you would never truly do such a thing unless you had feelings for this enemy of the Empire.”

Her scowl was the most unpleasant and haunting vision that Y/N could ever envision. “I-Ivayle, he’s not—!”

“Yeah, she has, and I will do whatever it takes to make sure you don’t lay a finger on her or the baby inside of her!” Prompto intervened, not wanting to incriminate Ignis in the mess. There were at least twenty soldiers making Prompto do his best to keep up the tough act even if he knew he may not be able to handle them all on his own with a now pregnant Y/N nearby.

Sizing up the gunman, Ivayle scoffed, her black hair sliding about her features as the wind took to caressing her tresses in its harsh graces that morning. “You are outnumbered, little gunslinger, and if you want that child and your beloved to be alive for a bit longer, you will surrender to us, or I will show no mercy in shooting her in the stomach to end this all.”


	13. Chapter 13

“Get the soldiers to lower their guns, and I’ll lower mine,” Prompto exchanged heatedly at the Grand Master.

Ivayle couldn’t tell if he was being serious or stupid or a bit of both. Her brow wrinkled unimpressed, the corner of her lip tugging to one side as if to figure him out. “You honestly expect to kill everything with that revolver, sweetheart?” she questioned in a condescending tone.

“You don’t know the tricks up my sleeve,” Prompto reminded her not wishing to divulge that part. “Get them to lower their weapons, and I will recall mine!” He was doing his best to put up a brave front and pretend he was more deadly than she assumed he was. Even Y/N was a bit confused as to what he had planned—if he had anything planned at all.

The butt of Ivayle’s spear dug into the snow as she sighed in agitation at Prompto’s persistent behavior. “Lower your guns,” she ordered to the Magitek soldiers, causing the robotic guards to do so at her command. “Now, where is the other one?”

Prompto went rigid, arm remaining outstretched to protect Y/N who was behind him still. “What other one?” He dismissed his weapon as he so promised he would.

“The other man who was traveling with you.” The Grand Master gestured to Y/N who was remaining behind Prompto still. “She said that there were two of you, and we’ve seen him through our network whenever you three would use the shops around here—another blond who keeps his eyes closed all the time for some reason with the same getup you’re wearing.”

As the two continued to converse, Y/N knew there would be no way out of this one way or the other and they both would either be shot dead or taken into custody. Either way, she had to slip Sal into the saddle bag belonging to her chocobo in hopes it would be allowed free and back to Ignis if he wasn’t found or caught. Maybe he would figure out a plan with her computer’s help? Y/N could only hope.

“There is no other one,” Prompto reflected firmly, hoping to have Ivayle believe him. “He died protecting us from a daemon attack a few days ago!”

Ivayle grew quiet, tapping her fingers against the spear she held curiously as she tried to decide if Prompto was telling the truth or not. She gestured to one half of the soldiers standing beside her. “Take them into custody,” the Grand Templar demanded, her words harsh and visible on the chill in the air. “The rest of you can split up and try to find this other royal retainer of the King of Lucis and see if he’s very much alive or dead. I don’t want you to stop till you have some proof he’s merely a corpse.”

As the soldiers converged onto Prompto and Y/N, the gunman kept his arm outstretched to try and protect the Templar behind him regardless. He wasn’t sure if they were meant to make it to Gralea alive or not, but he couldn’t help but fear for them all now as he was outnumbered and even with his bazooka he would only be able to take some of them down by himself (perhaps). Y/N was grabbed, pulled away harshly by two machines to which Prompto nearly reacted till two other soldiers restrained him in time.

“Don’t you hurt her!” Prompto demanded angrily as he attempted to pull from his restraints.

Ivayle’s lip twisted into an unimpressed sneer at Prompto being pushed back to the aircraft used to arrive on the scene sometime ago. Not sparing a word to the Lucian she grabbed at Y/N’s chin harshly to force her attention to her superior. “We have a lot to discuss when we arrive in Gralea, my  ** _dear_**.”

The sound of such a harsh and unforgiving tinge on that word made Y/N flinch before she was ushered away to the aircraft up ahead right behind Prompto. Head lowered in defeat and concern for everyone she had now endangered she looked back over her shoulder at her commanding officer but also slightly past her to notice the chocobo remained unharmed and left in peace as the black haired woman trailed behind them.

Ignis stirred in his sleep back at the campsite, moving his arms a bit to realize that the sleeping space beside him was empty much to his surprise. “Mm…?” It was unlike Y/N to be an early riser unless he actually slept in late or something was the matter. “Y/N?” he called, pushing himself upright as the darkness yielded nothing in terms of an answer by sound or touch.

Groping for his clothing, Ignis quickly put on the essentials, leaving his coat off of his body for the time being and hurrying to the opening of the tent where he could only smell the faint embers of the fire from the night before. It wasn’t stronger but weaker, showing none of them awoke before him. He dug his heel into the ground, trying to send out a signal as to what was around him but the snow made it a bit difficult.

“Prompto?” Ignis called in a bit of a risen panic, hurrying towards the tent he knew wasn’t far from his and Y/N’s. Pulling back the flap of the tent he felt was already loose and opened, he beckoned to him again. “Prompto, are you here?” He tried to stay calm but the idea that two of them had suddenly gone missing was alarming. Falling to his knees with his hand outstretched, Ignis searched desperately in the dark only to find the sleeping bag was empty.

In haste, Ignis hurried back outside to try and find the chocobos. Hands extended like a child searching desperately for the walls in the darkness of one’s home, he managed to find the reins of one and tugged on it gently to bring closer to him. With fear embracing him, the advisor hadn’t realized or recognized how cold he was without his coat on at least. When he heard the bird kweh at him, Ignis shushed it tenderly with a stroke upon the curve of the beak before guiding his hand down towards the saddlebag to search through it for what he needed to find.

“That’s…that’s mine,” he murmured to himself when his fingers came across the cooking utensils he put within his as well as a few cooking books he recognized the spines and covers of.

Hearing another chocobo nearby Ignis moved towards the slight crunching of the snow as the bird casually walked upon it to try and pluck through the cover of winter to get to something to eat. Again, Ignis was careful with at least finding the neck of the creature to pet it reassuringly and make his way down to the saddlebag to search through the contents to figure out who it belonged to. His touch only had to come across the camera buried within the bag to know who it belonged to, making his heart race in doubt and heartache thinking he had been betrayed as he could only sense the two birds at the camp…the other, belonging to Y/N, was obviously missing as was Prompto.

Digging into his pant’s pocket, he pulled out the bird whistle and blew it long and hard regardless of what consequences it could unearth for him being in enemy territory. At the end of the sound, Ignis waited patiently in hopes of hearing the bird approaching. “Come on now…” he pleaded, head lowered as he kept a firm grip on the ride belonging to Prompto as it was comforting to have something close even if it couldn’t speak to him. The silence was deafening making Ignis’ lower lip quiver in horror and regret. “Y/N…where did you go?” His words cracked, fearing the worst and wanting his sorrow to merely stay so until he had proof to turn it to anger at her betraying him.

Soon the air pierced with the sound of a chocobo frantically heading in his direction prompting Ignis’ head to shoot upward and turn towards the sound of bird talons crunching the snow in a feverish pace. Opening his hand for the chocobo to come to a stop, Ignis grabbed the reins and hurried to the saddle to find that it was without a rider.

“Y/N?” Even if he knew she wasn’t there, he was hoping her voice would arise from somewhere. Again, the advisor fondled in the dark for the saddlebag, locating it with ease to try and find what could possibly be there. Was she captured? Did she leave with Prompto as her prisoner to Gralea? Was she trying to rat them all out but Prompto stopped her? His thoughts came to a quick end when he felt the all too familiar metal of the handheld Y/N was rarely seen without. “Sal?” Ignis breathed in some small relief pulling the computer from the saddlebag to turn her on.

The screen blipped on, a breath of life coming from the machine. “Prompto?” she seemed to ask for right away though it made most sense as Prompto was the one holding onto her a lot lately.

“No, it’s me,” Ignis responded finding small comfort in having some voice around to talk to in the darkness of his mind.

“Oh,” Sal responded unenthusiastically and sounding a bit bitter. “What do you want? Come to interrogate me in private again?”

“Sal, this is important,” Ignis insisted as he kept a hold of the chocobo’s reins. “Y/N and Prompto were vacant from the tents this morning, and I haven’t the slightest of where they’ve gone. Do you have any idea of where they may have went in the early hours?”

“I don’t exactly have eyes like you humans do,” Sal reminded him. “Well,  ** _most_**  you humans.” She paused, searching her databanks for a few things. “Seems it’s…nearly eight in the morning…And Prompto  ** _and_**  Y/N were already up and about?”

“So you see my fear.” Ignis sighed, teeth chattering finally to remind him that he had been ignoring the cold about him with the panic that had fogged his logic. “Out of anyone, Y/N is never up this early unless for a reason.” His grip upon the machine tightened. “Unless she had a plan of sorts as I refuse to believe the Empire would sack our camp and merely take two of the three of us.”

“Stop your constant teeth chattering and put more clothes on if you’re so cold,” Sal groaned with a heated spike in her voice module. “I can barely understand you when you’re acting this way. Also, calm down, for gods sake—Y/N may have acted brash, but if she had the intention of turning you in, it would have been all a façade. You know that very well, so don’t be stupid.”

Turning in the snow and heading back to his tent, Ignis did as Sal suggested knowing he had to think of his own health first and foremost before worrying of others. “We have to find out what happened to them as I fear the worst. Did Y/N say anything to you in private that I should be aware of?”

Sal went quiet as Ignis managed to place on the remainder of his winter clothing that aided him in the harsh cold of Niflheim. “Well…a thing or two, but I believe that’s not for your ears—.”

“—Sal, enough with the games!” Ignis snapped angrily as he buttoned up the warm winter’s coat he had with him. “Y/N and Prompto are in trouble, and if you don’t stop toying around who knows what will happen to them!”

“In order for me to tell you anything in regards to Y/N’s personal comings and goings you would need her password to enter my databanks,” Sal reminded Ignis firmly in the matter as the advisor exited the tent, outstretching his hand for one of the chocobos to grab the reins of yet again. “Just because I can talk and I am sentient doesn’t mean I will willfully depart with information on my hard drive regardless of the situation that be as…that’s sadly my limitations in terms of being as human as I can be.”

It was oddly a somber sounding comment that Sal departed with, showing she somewhere deep down hated she was indeed trapped in this machine and couldn’t act against her programming at times. “What is the password then?”

“Really…?” Sal asked with a sarcastic tune. “Do you ask everybody’s personal computer that in hopes it’ll open up to you magically?” She sighed best she was able with her limitations. “What do  ** _you_**  think the password is?”

Sal asked that as if to hint Ignis probably already knew it. His head lowered as he sighed through his nostrils. “The password is…Sulista.” A confirmation sound seemed to go off that Ignis could recognize as pleasant, feeling pleased he figured it out but also uncertain of what he should truly do now.

“You’re in,” Sal verified. “What do you want me to do?”

“First and foremost, I want you to remove my King’s information you have stored on your hard drive somewhere,” Ignis ordered as his Majesty always came first.

“I cannot,” said Sal simply.

His grip upon the device tightened. “And why is that?” Ignis tried not to show disdain in the act but his patience was wearing a bit thin.

“I cannot do what has already been done.”

Ignis’ eyes opened at the words Sal departed with, breath hastily passing through his lips. “What…did you say?” He was in absolute disbelief.

“Y/N deleted the data of her own accord a few days ago,” Sal informed him. “I proceeded to tell her what a fool she was being if she wanted to walk into Gralea with the pretense of saying she had King Noctis’ information at her fingertips only to delete it, but after something came to light in the recent days, she decided it was better this way.”

“And she wasn’t going to tell anybody she deleted it?” Ignis questioned, finding that odd.

“Sadly, you’ve warped her mind and heart and Y/N feels she deserves to be punished for her crimes against your King. She doesn’t want leniency but the extent of what any criminal in her shoes you didn’t fuck in private would get,” Sal expressed without restraint. She heard Ignis clear his throat as if to say the last remark was improper but she refused to retract it knowing the truth. “Anyways, our little secret.”

“And the other thing she told you that you’re keeping secret from me? Is it imperative to the situation at hand?” Ignis questioned as he was worrying still where the two could be.

Sal seemed to pause for a moment, her voice unit blipping a bit as if struggling to think of what to say or do. “Welllllll…”

“Sal, this is important!” Ignis scolded again, hoping to get the machine to cooperate with him.

Sal’s attempt at an exasperated and defeated sigh rang in Ignis’ ears. “Listen, if you value her and her privacy you will not force me to recite the last message she left me. It isn’t for your ears—at least not yet. As for what I can tell you in regards to Prompto and Y/N’s whereabouts, I can tell you that I haven’t an idea of where they are but I am  ** _certain_**  Ivayle has them.” She paused, huffing a sort of angered sound. “I know that woman is vindictive and never had Y/N’s interest at heart even if she fills the girl’s head with lies that she loves her. The day Y/N contacted her, I am sure Ivayle was watching closely the second we landed and probably was waiting for the time to strike. If Y/N pulled from camp, Prompto probably followed her as I know he doesn’t trust her that well yet, and it got the two caught if I am nowhere near either of them.”

“Bloody hell,” Ignis swore in a tone that nearly denoted his surrender as he felt powerless without at least Prompto at his side.

“I can try and hack into the radio signals I recognize from the Empire and fill you in on their comings and goings. Since I am made with Niflheim technology, they won’t be the wiser nor think me a problem in the system,” Sal soothed best she was able. “Now, since we were heading to Gralea anyway…stop moping on your ass and get there!”

“And how is a blind man supposed to make it into a city alone?” Ignis questioned, hating to outwardly admit his hindrances. “Snow makes it a bit more difficult for me to sense my surroundings as the terrain doesn’t carry a vibration nearly as well in some regards. It will be harder for me to find my way around without aid.”

“You will be better off in the city walls then,” insisted Sal. “As far as I am aware, metal and steel will be your better guide there. Don’t you have a cane or something like most blind people?”

“I have my spear, and that alone will have to do for now in this terrain. I am not wonderful with echolocation by my voice and clicks, but I can get by well enough on that I suppose till something more suitable comes about,” answered Ignis. “I got rid of my cane six or so years ago. Lucis doesn’t get snow nearly as much as Niflheim so I never had to concern myself with this problem.”

“Lovely, be sure not to slaughter anybody with that accidentally,” Sal joked in a neutral tone. “Honestly, just get on the chocobo for now, and I can guide you vocally. I have a built in map and can track where I am in relation to everything on it. I shall be the not-so-blind leading the mostly blind.”

“It would be wise not to travel on the road,” Ignis insisted as he took to the reins of Y/N’s bird to mount up and get situated as the Templar had carried light, making her mount the faster of the other two. “If you can find a means around such a thought, I would be grateful.” A warning blip caught Ignis’ attention as it rang distressingly in his ears. “What is wrong? I don’t like that sound you’re making…”

“Imperial soldiers are nearby,” Sal said with her vocals lowered as if to whisper. “I don’t know what you did to attract their attention, but you better hurry!”

Ignis was quiet for a moment, tuning out everything around him to try and focus on the gears and the grinding sounds they made within the machines now and again. Even the armor was ever faint but he could tell they were gaining speed in his direction and it was there he took notice of where the sound was coming from and departed in the opposite direction.

 

Prompto and Y/N were locked in the back of the aircraft, guarded by two soldiers in the airship Ivayle had used to track them down with. It was more a cage for large daemons to important what they needed in terms of making their military. It reeked to Y/N and no doubt Prompto as well, smelling of blood and other things she dared not focus on as her stomach was already a mess.

“Did you really have to contact them to your location?” Prompto asked quietly to Y/N as he sat opposite to her in their confinement.

Y/N embraced her stomach, hoping it would settle in time as she didn’t want to lose her dinner from the night before. “I didn’t. Ivayle must have been tracking us somehow…I am sure she was tracking Sal to figure out where I was as soon as we landed.”

Prompto’s head lowered, a whispered swear escaping him. “So she was just waiting to get us all.”

“This is better for us right now,” Y/N admitted quietly in return so her words wouldn’t carry. “Ignis is still free and maybe…with Sal’s help…they can get us and King Noctis to freedom as well as this other friend of yours you’ve mentioned.”

Prompto looked through the bars, making sure nothing was truly around that could catch their conversation beyond the two Magitek soldiers who rarely recorded information. “So you don’t have Sal on you? Is…that going to hurt or help us?”

Y/N shrugged, moving to her side to try and find some comfort but the stench of the cage become too overbearing and she quickly pushed herself back upright with an exasperated sigh. “I put Sal in my chocobo’s saddlebag when you were antagonizing Ivayle, and maybe if Ignis calls the birds back he’ll find her and use her.” Y/N brought her knees to her chest. “Without her it…will be difficult for us to escape on our own, but I don’t want her in the hands of the Empire, and Ignis can say he’s fine as he is, but I don’t want a blind man wandering around in places he’s not familiar with without help.” She glanced away at nothing in particular, thinking back on Ignis and what he was probably doing now with a shake of her head. “He’s probably worried to death of us or thinking I betrayed him, maybe…”

“If he has Sal, I am sure she’ll make him think otherwise even if things are a bit damning,” Prompto commented with a lighthearted chuckle.

Head to her scrunched up knees, Y/N sighed as she wished he was there beside her right now. She felt far safer with him around and as though everything was going to be alright. “Why did you lie to her?” Y/N asked when she lifted her head to speak to Prompto. “Why did you tell her you’re the father?”

“Well…racism is pretty heavy in Insomnia too depending on where you look,” Prompto confessed with a roll of his eyes. “If Ivayle wants a Lucian to be responsible for it, I’ll take the blame so she can unleash her fury onto me, and Ignis will be spared when it comes to that sin in her eyes.” He still couldn’t help but expel a nasally laugh to himself. “From ‘I’m going to make her pay’ to ‘father of your baby’ in over nearly two months is…something else. Was that some plan of yours that backfired or did you really fall in love with him?”

Y/N tried to find humor in the statement and did for a brief time as a smile flickered across her lips as she rocked idly in place to sooth herself. “No, I didn’t lie to him,” she confessed with a heavy heart. “I can never pretend to love anybody. Besides, I am a shitty liar; especially around him. Ignis is so perceptive he would have seen through that had I tried, I am sure.” Again, Y/N glanced away for a moment. “He had several opportunities to let me die and to destroy Sal, but he never once did it or threatened to—only if I dared to send his King’s information to my own people to which is justified. And when he took that behemoth attack for me, I just…” She paused, bringing her fingers to her mouth as if to nervously bite upon the nails. “He’s another in only a list of two people I can count that has ever loved me, and I will do whatever it takes to make sure I don’t lose him too.”

Prompto’s brow furrowed as if understanding that pain of not really having a lot of friends or people who cared till later on in his teen life. He too began to fidget with his fingers in an idle pause, his spine uncomfortably against the bars near the back of the cage. “How long ago did you know that you were pregnant?”

“A few days ago. As soon as we landed I stole a pregnancy test at one of the shops we quickly stopped at to rent chocobos. I had to steal it as I knew Ignis would be curious what I was buying, and I didn’t need you seeing it either,” Y/N confessed. “Been in this wicked stage of denial ever since and hoping that it was wrong but…” She moved her hand across her stomach that had felt different when she pressed about it cautiously. “…the gods want to laugh in my face, I guess in regards to the timing.”

There was something in her dreary tone that upset Prompto and panicked his heart. “Are you even going to tell him?”

“No,” Y/N whispered firmly.

“Why not?” Prompto shook his head, finding that cruel.

Y/N tried to smile though it broke and became weighed down by the tears that threatened to overpower her. “Because there’s no guarantee I will make it out of here alive, and I don’t want him to know what else he’ll lose.”

“Y/N, I plan on protecting you both with my life,” Prompto insisted through his teeth, gesturing to himself firmly. “We’re all going to get out of here alive!”

“But you know him,” Y/N insisted with a somber sigh. “You know he’s going to do whatever it takes to make sure everyone is alive even if it means his life, and Prompto, I can’t…I just can’t…” She paused, closing her eyes to recline back on the bars she was finding reprieve against now as a quivering inhale hurt her lips, which were cracked a bit from the cold. “I can’t go through life again knowing I lost someone else who actually loves me…” Y/N paused, looking over at Prompto once more with pain upon her expression. “I would rather die than I have to try and go through life without someone I care for again, and if that’s the case…I’d rather he not know what else he loses in this…”

“Y/N—!”

“—If he is too riddled with sorrow as I was at Sulista’s passing, then you can tell him the truth,” Y/N insisted, running her fingers through her hair to try and believe none of this would come to pass. “You can get him to search Sal’s databanks for the truth if he won’t believe you. Let him come to hate me and my dirty secret so he can move on as I don’t want him to suffer as I have, but please…don’t tell him this anytime soon.”

The aircraft lurched aggressively, making Y/N hit her head on the bars as Prompto fell forward from the surprised descend. His lips moved inward with determination, shaking his head at Y/N’s final thought in all of this. “We are going to get out of here— ** _alive_** ,” he stressed as Y/N rubbed the back of her head from the harsh impact of the metal behind her. “You’re going to have your baby and you will get to see Ignis holding it when we all get out of here and back to Insomnia in one piece— ** _nobody’s_**  dying!”

Y/N forced a smile, trying to find that thought to be pleasant. “Thank you.” The words shook violently from her mouth before moving her palm to her lips as if to silence herself, tears trailing down her cheeks and marring the already soiled cage as they were both lowered into Gralea.

It was agonizing, waiting for the aircraft to finally land and be directed into the loading bay. Prompto kept Y/N close to himself, his grip only tightening when Ivayle opened the cargo doors to step inside with three soldiers at her side. Her look to Prompto was cold and unfeeling as it was to Y/N as well though the woman refused to look at her commanding officer right away given the trouble she knew she was already in.

“Open the doors,” she ordered to the guards, her icy cold stare bearing down on them both. “Take the Lucian down to the prison.” Ivayle gestured to Y/N with an angry twist of her mouth. “And bring  ** _that one_**  to my office.”

Prompto tried to attack even if he knew it would be pointless to. Just as he attempted to lunge at the back of Ivayle who dared to turn away from him, the Magitek soldiers restrained him in haste by grabbing his wrists and punching him so hard in the stomach he lost his breath and will to stand.

“Stop it!” Y/N begged, trying to end the fight from continuing only to be grabbed violently by one of the creations of the Empire and pulled to her feet to be escorted with Prompto through the palace.

As the two were escorted side-by-side for awhile, Y/N took note of the cameras and other devices they had put into place in her absence since they had the King. In passing some of the visual maps on the wall, Y/N glanced quickly and closely at them to notice there was a block on the usage of weapons as soon as you entered the lower floor where the prison was. It would hurt Prompto and his friends more than it would the Niffs and the soldiers.

“There’s a weapon restriction field activated in the prison sector,” she whispered to the gunman. “You won’t be able to use your guns in that part of the palace so don’t try.”

“Lovely,” he sighed with a shake of his head. “Got any plans for that?”

“Depends on what Ivayle has planned for me,” Y/N answered, trying to find courage in the situation at present. “If she is willing to give me a second chance, which I doubt she will, I will have all the time in the world to hack into the security measures she’s put into place and remove it.” She sighed with a shrug of her brow. “As things are…I am sure in time I will be thrown down there with you after a beating or something, so don’t expect miracles. Sadly, without Sal…this won’t be near as easy…” Thinking quickly, she thought back on the threat Prompto gave her when they met a second time. “Do you still have your assassin blade?”

“Yes, always on me,” he answered.

“Find a way to make sure they don’t take it if they try to remove your clothes. We might can use that for later,” Y/N insisted.

“Just find out what happened to Noct at the very least and you and the baby be safe…please!” Prompto begged at a whisper to Y/N.

The guards stopped, the two holding Prompto kept a firm grip as they activated the door that would lead to the prison sector while the others keeping a hold onto Y/N continued onward to separate the two. The Templar woman noticed as a last ditch effort that Prompto attempted to wiggle free but the guards were far stronger than him given their model and were used to restraining men half his size. Falling in defeat within the grasp of the soldiers that had her, Y/N was soon pushed into the office room belonging to Ivayle, finding it empty and quiet.

One of the machines urged her down into the empty chair opposite the Grand Master’s desk while the other guarded the door like clockwork. Her wrists were bound before the departure from the airship, leaving Y/N with little options in terms of escape. Staring at her situation, she sighed dejectedly at the matter though tried to find light in the miserable situation as she thought back on the moments she shared with Ignis.

The doors opened behind her once again, making Y/N sick to her stomach as Ivayle ordered the guards outside. “Leave us,” she demanded, the sound of her shoes striking the cold ground cruelly upon each, agonizingly slow step was nearly more than Y/N could handle. The Grand Master didn’t even take to her chair but sat on the edge of her desk where Y/N was sitting. “At least have the courage to look at me, Y/N, if you’re going to stab me in the back as this,” she hissed angrily. Grabbing her chin, the raven haired woman forced the matter. “You better start talking, and the story better be good for my patience has worn thin in this matter.”


	14. Chapter 14

Walking down the many prison chambers, Prompto kept his eyes open for anybody that reminded him of his friends. Most were empty and some had still bodies that he feared they were merely dead by this point and only waited to be disposed of. As he was ushered to his cell he felt his heart nearly lodge in his throat on the way there as bars gave view of a man in ragged pants attire (shirt perhaps having been rotted away by now) lying face down in the dreadful living conditions in an unpleasant position, and what stood out to him the most was the dark brown hair, longer in length and the giant bird of prey tattoo that covered most of his back and arms.

Not wasting a single moment, Prompto shoved with all his might against one of the soldiers, catching it off guard and causing it to fall over while the other was busy trying to open his cell door not far from where Gladiolus’ was. “Gladio!”

Merely shouting the name was frantic and weighed with tearful fear that they may have been too late given how much in bad form the Shield to the King was. Prompto’s hands gripped tighten onto the bars, wishing he could pick the lock but he felt the cold, metal touch of the machines upon him trying to pull him away.

But the gunman fought, he fought against them eagerly causing one to be knocked back again in his struggle. “Gladio, wake up! It’s me—Prompto!” he cried out desperately, letting the machine left standing tear at his clothing and scrape his skin underneath if it so desired, but he wasn’t going to leave the sight of his fallen friend without knowing he was alright.

In much needed relief, Prompto witnessed as Gladiolus’ fingers twitched there upon the cold, hard ground from where he lay. A moan escaping him as he turned as if thinking the man calling out to him was but a memory or a dream. “Promp…to…?” The Shield of the King of Lucis rose his head off of the ground, amber eyes widening at the sight of him there on the other side of his cell. “Prompto…!”

He was horribly weak, having not eaten well in two months, but seeing his friend in danger made Gladiolus find renewed strength as he went for the bars to grab at them to try and break himself free only to witness as Prompto was soon torn from the scene and pulled by the collar of his attire (to where it gagged him) down to the cell just beside the Shield’s. As delusional and frail as he was, Gladiolus still outstretched his hand trying to desperately grab onto Prompto’s at the very least but when he heard the slamming of the barred door, he growled in contempt.

“You hurt him, you tin can…and I swear you will not be able to contain me!” Gladiolus threatened through his clenched teeth even if it was a veiled attempt to be mincing.

The soldiers responded not at all, merely continued onward with what they were built to do, and left the area to patrol the outer halls to which left the two alone.

“Prompto…!” Gladiolus gasped in relief from where he was at the prison door, only aware his companion was somewhere nearby. “Are you alright?”

Moving to his own cell doorway as well so that his words would carry better, Prompto managed to smile in some form of relief knowing that Gladiolus was alright. “Heh, of course…Why worry about me? You’re the one who has been imprisoned for who knows how long,” he reminded his friend, trying to be upbeat about it as humor remained buried in his remark.

The gunman heard Gladiolus expel a nasally sigh of relief regardless. “Yeah,” he began with a lopsided grin, “but you were always the weaker one.”

“Haha, ouch!” Prompto chuckled though knowing he was merely joking. “You were the one to get captured before me, big guy—remember that.” Silence for a moment until he found it within himself to continue. “So…what happened? Where’s Noct…?”

“Noct’s alive but not here. He’s somewhere else in the palace.” Gladiolus moved from the door, leaning against the wall where he knew Prompto’s cell was on the other side to try and regain what little strength he had as his head rolled backward to rest against the cool metal lining of his containment. “I don’t remember the night all that well but I can say that something hit me hard and fast. With what I know about Noct being used now with the effects of this thing called The Crown of Madness they made and have been torturing him with…” Gladiolus’ voice trailed off, the ever subtle sound of movement evident from Prompto’s cell as the man shifted in his chamber. “…I am sure they got him to turn on me and strike me down with the weapons of the former kings or something.”

“Crown of Madness…?” Prompto quoted breathlessly, his gloved hands tightening on the bars before him. “What did they do to him!”

After Y/N’s explanation of what had happened through her tenure with Prompto and Ignis, she waited for Ivayle to react as she spoke the truth knowing no lies she could come up with would now save her. The woman’s heels of her boots continued to tap mercilessly against the cool metal of the floor as she paced about with her arms folded behind her back, making the Templar sick to her stomach in worry. Staying with Prompto’s lie of being the father best she was able, she did her best to replace a majority of the story with the gunman instead of the advisor so as to continue to distract her Grand Master from remembering there was another that could very well be out there and on the run.

Finally, the relentless pacing stopped and Ivayle turned with a harsh, unforgiving look at Y/N. Her footsteps hurried towards her, making Y/N look up at the risen hand that soon connected with her cheek in such a harsh way that she swore she felt her cheek bleeding but had not the care or time to check. “I sent you on this mission to retrieve the information required to infiltrate Insomnia and bring down her King, and what did you do—you slept with the damn enemy and betrayed us!” Ivayle’s voice raised angrily in the last part of her wording, making the reverberation urge Y/N to recoil as her hand tended to her sore cheek. The angry chill of her grab tightened upon the woman’s shoulder’s as she shook Y/N when she refused to look Ivayle’s way. “You look at your superior when she is talking to you!”

Her eyes quickly darted towards the Grand Master’s, wide and glossed over with the hint of tears. She had been scared of upsetting Ivayle before as she had done so now and again in the past, but the Templar never was a witness to her faults being this bad. Y/N would have apologized, but she didn’t have a reason to say she was sorry for finding love in someone she least expected. “What…What have you done to the King of Lucis…?” she reluctantly asked, fearing she may anger her better even further with that question.

“You mean  ** _your_**  King, Y/N?” Ivalye hissed those words with disapproval. Removing herself from where she was hovering over Y/N, she ventured to the control panel at her desk to strike a few keys to make the screen behind her turn on to answer the Templar’s question.

Turning to the screen in question, Y/N noticed that Noctis was indeed alive but chained in a horrific manner as the chains even bound him tightly across the face as if to prevent him from doing any single form of movement no matter how absurd it would seem. Bound to a wall in a part of the palace Y/N couldn’t say she recognized, the King was posed in a crucified position as if to be made a mockery of given how distasteful the positioning of him was. His clothing was ratted and dirtied from the months he had gone under their horrible treatments and blood seemed to mar his face about his head for some reason or another.

“Your Majesty,” Y/N whispered to herself. Rising slowly from the seat, she embraced herself with a knot of disgust in the pit of her stomach. There was once a time she would have been pleased to see the King of Lucis at their mercy but not like this. Looking at the image closely, the Templar woman noted he was out cold and merely hanging there loosely. Only the chains truly kept him suspended. “What have you done to him…!”

“With a handy little gadget called The Crown of Madness we’ve been able to bend him to our will,” Ivayle said with wicked pleasure at the fact, hand upon her hip. That smirk, however, quickly turned into a frown of annoyance. “Regardless, he fights us still. Two damn months and still the King resists the urge to even kill off his friend we have in confinement. He was able to wound him that one night but after such an attack, he fights us as valiantly as ever.” She waved away the thought as if it was not to be a bother for long. “No matter. He grows weaker and before long he will be completely brainwashed and under our control to where we can take over the rest of Eos.”

“What is this crown you speak of?” Y/N didn’t mean to sound so demanding to her now former Grand Master, but she didn’t exactly have the freedom to research it herself; especially with Sal out of her grasp.

Ivayle’s harsh look surrendered to faux love and sympathy as her cold embrace touched (unwelcomingly) upon Y/N’s shoulders. “You have a choice to make, my dear,” began the Grand Master, ignoring her question intentionally. “You can choose to rise against us with that Lucian lover of yours but we will see to it you rot in that cell with him, taking your baby from you should you live long enough to have it of course; or you can stand back at my side yet again, Y/N, and that child will be raised as one of the better in our ranks while learning to brandish a weapon against the Lucians—including its own father should he even make it out of here alive.”

Cringing at the very thought of allowing that to transpire, Y/N pulled from Ivayle’s grasp. “Never…! There’s not a single thing you could promise me that would have me turn against the man I love or have this child end up in your care!”

The Grand Master’s grip latched tightly upon her throat without warning, squeezing Y/N until she gasped and clawed wearily at Ivayle’s grasp while gulping for air. “Then you will  ** _rot_**  below in the cell with your lover, Y/N.” Her words were stern, burning of near flame upon Y/N’s features as the woman spoke. “Consider me merciful, Y/N,” Ivayle continued, throwing the technician down on the ground where she gasped and coughed with relief at feeling the cool graces of the air upon her throat once more. “I will see to it that you and your beloved stay in the graces of one another for a few months more—at least till you birth that child, and then I will have no further use for either of you.”

The doors opened, seemingly right on queue as the magitek soldiers entered the room yet again with their weapons laying at rest.

“Take her to the prison and be sure she joins with that blond boy that was dumped down there not too long ago,” Ivayle ordered, her blue eyes giving the most unforgiving and bone chilling look ever to Y/N. “She is no longer one of us but allied with them.”

Prompto remained in the back of the prison cell he was confined in, knees to his chest with his forehead resting upon the bridge they made before him. He was worried—with little to go on with this Crown of Madness and Gladiolus too weak to even be awake for extended periods, he knew their work was going to be cut out for them if Ignis didn’t arrive quickly. By airship, it was easy to get to Gralea, but by bird…? It could be a day or two if Ignis didn’t stop for anything.

Hearing the doors open, the gunman paid it little mind until he heard his own door being unlocked. “Y/N…!” Prompto gasped when he saw her there in the magitek soldiers’ grasp, hanging rather limply and in defeat. Scurrying to his feet, he opened his arms to catch her when the machines saw fit to throw her in the cell with him, letting her weight nearly knock him backward in the process. “Are you alright? Did they hurt you?”

Y/N shook her head with a heavy sigh, not sure how they were all going to get out of this mess at current with how badly things appeared. “I saw King Noctis,” she murmured in despair. “They have him contained somewhere in the palace, but I don’t know where. Nothing really stood out to me, but I did notice he was chained and bleeding from the head for some reason, like someone struck him there several times or something.”

“It’s the Crown of Madness’ doing,” responded Gladiolus wearily from the other side where he lay resting on the cold, hard ground. “It has dagger sharp latches that dig into the sides of his head, I’ve noticed. It’s the only way they can get that confusion spell pumped into him and to prevent him from ripping it off right away.”

Y/N blinked her confusion at the new voice from the other side of the wall. It was a tone she remembered from somewhere but she couldn’t place exactly where in her memories. “Who is—?”

“Gladiolus,” Prompto interrupted to answer Y/N’s question. “The Shield of the King and the friend we’ve been looking for.”

“You said something about a confusion spell?” Y/N probed further, figuring pleasantries and all of that could wait for later as her fate was still undetermined from both sides of the fence. “Do know how it’s controlling him? Do you know how this thing works?”

There was movement as Gladiolus shifted onto his back so that his words could carry better as he lacked the desire to stand. “I’ve seen and experienced it enough times to guess…” The back of his hand rested upon his forehead, the Shield trying to conserve what energy he had. “You know how some creatures and even humans have the talent to use some sort of confusion ability? Well, they’ve found a way to harness that into the crown and it’s constantly fogging his mind from some mechanism that pumps it into him—probably from that center gem or something. It’s poisoning Noct and making him bend to their desires seeing as only the Lucian King can handle the Ring of the Lucii.”

“Those monsters are slowly killing him,” Prompto growled angrily, his lower lip moving inward with furious disgust.

“Worse than you think,” Y/N sighed as she bunched her hands together in a sort of prayer near her chest. “You know the effects of that ring, right?” When Prompto’s blue eyes widened at the memory of such a thing, Y/N regretted continuing. “Ivayle and the others don’t know how hard to push him and the more they do, regardless the results, they will treat him as though he is immortal to the burn effects of that ring. It will slowly wear down the King’s body till his heart just stops or his entire body turns to ash…”

“We have to get out of here,” Gladiolus insisted with a sort of growl to his words.

“How?” Prompto asked. “We don’t know where Noct is even located and you are hardly well enough to stand.”

The Shield grumbled at the reminder, having not eaten well in sometime caused most of his strength to vanish. “I don’t care. I refuse to sit here any longer while our King and friend suffers from their experiments!”

Y/N hummed, eyes darting off to the side in thought. She wasn’t one to take a leader role but she had more than herself to think of this time, so she worked on devising a plan. “I would insist we wait for Ignis but—.”

“Ignis?” Gladiolus’ hands could be heard gripping the iron bars of his cell door. “Who exactly are you to know him and Prompto?”

Y/N froze, not sure if she wanted to answer that with all things considered. Cringing at the very thought, she gazed pleadingly at Prompto for a solution.

“We’ll talk about that later, big guy,” Prompto insisted with a nervous laugh. “It’s a long story anyways. But, uh—hey—the good news is, Iggy is still very much out there and on his way to help us.”

“Fantastic,” Gladiolus grumbled sarcastically. “One man against an army. That should truly bring light to the situation at hand.”

The Templar woman shook her head disapprovingly at one with so little faith, turning to Prompto with her hand outstretched as if to ask for something. “Obviously it goes without saying, but I was unable to hack into the control panel to lower the anti-magic field. Were you able to keep your hidden blade?”

With a single flick of his wrist, the blade ejected to let Y/N witness first hand that it was indeed there. “Good news about being many things under the King’s ruling is nobody suspects you’re an assassin if you wear the right clothes in public.”

“Perfect,” Y/N whispered between them, digging into her jacket to pull out two lock picks. “Ivayle can think me useless as much as she wants but a coward still knows her way in and out of scrapes, and I never left home without the ability to pick any lock should I need access to something my computer might not be able to hack into.”

“Great!” Prompto cheered in relief. “So what’s the plan?”

“We wait,” Y/N answered, pocketing her trinkets once more into her inner coat pocket.

The gunman blinked with a shake of his head in confusion. “Wa-Wait? But how long? The longer we wait the worse it could be for us and Noct!”

Y/N’s finger to her own lips to silence Prompto’s risen voice, she responded, “Yes, and if we act like idiots we’ll get caught again and punished far worse. We need to wait for a moment of opportunity to present itself whether that be Ignis getting caught, should that happen, or Ivayle coming to fetch one of us. I know it’s been hard for you lately, but you have to trust me with this.” Her hands rested upon Prompto’s to try and sooth his concerns. “Our opportunity may not present itself today or even tomorrow, but when it does, I will let you know when to strike.”

It was hard for Prompto to consider trusting Y/N but he knew, given the circumstances, he had little reason to doubt much of her now. Besides, he swore to protect her and the unborn child no matter what.

 

——————

 

When all seemed clear, Ignis pulled the cover off of the manhole where he was in the sewer system that Y/N had mentioned was probably the best means of which to enter Gralea given how heavily guarded it was. It was indeed quiet. He could hear the distant walks of citizens and soldiers now and again in the distance, knowing his spot was free of him being witnessed. Pulled to fresher air, Ignis kept his coughs of delight to a minimum as he removed Sal from his pocket to turn her back on.

“I’m in,” he whispered after hearing the confirmation beep that she had turned on successfully. Ignis found relief in such a sound as he hadn’t a means to charge her properly being very much on the run from the Empire; though managed to slip into an obscure diner located off the road to do a bit of such sometime ago.

“About time,” Sal chastised quietly though was doing her best to not be as venomous as before seeing as both their comrades were in trouble and she needed to be certain Y/N was alright.

“I don’t wish to know how long that took just to arrive here,” Ignis confessed, moving the cover back into place so nobody would be the wiser before hurrying off out of sight as he could feel a few boxes and bins nearby that could conceal him from anything walking just about the slums he had emptied into.

“You should know it took nearly four days,” Sal answered regardless only to hear the disapproving and worried grumble from the advisor. “Because of a bit of information I have that you don’t, I would strongly suggest you get in there as quick as possible and be certain they are alright or you may lose more than you realize.”

“I am well aware that the Empire doesn’t exactly treat Lucians with respect in regards to punishment,” spoke Ignis in worry as he began to use Sal’s monitoring of where he was walking to glean what was the best way toward the palace. “Nor would they their traitors, but to rush in brazenly would very well prove unwise than valorous.”

“Just hurry—please!” Sal’s voice changed from aggressive and annoyed to pleading and demanding. “I collected information from their databanks when in idle rest earlier that prison cell D-23 is occupied by a Lucian and a traitor, so I am certain that is them. Where your other friends are, I do not know.” Sal went quiet, scanning the nearby area in haste to see if there were any secrets she should know. “There’s an old service tunnel that I am sure is still accessible near the back of the palace itself. It used to dump failed and unusable experiments into waste but hasn’t been used in over fifty years if my data is correct. It will still be guarded, so don’t let your own guard down just yet.”

“I will be discreet but if anything catches my attention, I will not be merciful with all they’ve done,” Ignis warned, hurrying onward as Sal suggested.

The ratted old cloth laid to rest in the prison cell was hardly comfortable for anybody in terms of trying to lie down and catch some rest. The food was minimal and revolting—tasting of mere leftovers nobody in the palace truly wanted. It was a no wonder Gladiolus had been reduced to such a quivering, sick pile on the floor if this was how he was treated all that time.

Prompto let Y/N rest her head in his lap from time to time. It was a better alternate to the discomfort of the hard, metal floor that was for sure. He feared for her and the child regardless, even if he was allowing Y/N to eat most of the food that arrived at their cell. She was still acting ill and the fact she was starving as her baby was eating most of the food was not helpful in regards to her health.

As the movement of a tray of food sliding under the door caught his attention, Prompto carefully maneuvered Y/N’s head out of his lap and onto the floor before making his way to the dish that smelled vile to him. With it in his hands the gunman tasted a part of it and found it to be fine and still editable regardless of the stench. “Y/N,” he called, moving the dish closer to where she could at least smell it hoping that would be enough to coax her into the act of waking up and trying to stomach something. “The food is here.”

Just the smell alone was enough to make Y/N cringe and turn up her nose at the idea as she moved her face away from the odor. “Enough…I cannot eat anymore of that garbage,” she insisted only to feel Prompto try to situate her to at least sit upright against the nearby wall.

“You have to!” Prompto insisted in a low whisper, not wanting his words to carry over to Gladiolus with all things considered. “You are not just feeding yourself right now, Y/N…Remember that!” His brow furrowed in concern as she had grown pale in the past few days with what little food and water they were running on. “Both of you have to survive through this! Just…” His words trembled as he tried to think of a solution, eyes darting about feverishly for an answer. “…Just don’t smell it. Sometimes smell makes the meal taste worse.”

Y/N sighed to herself, knowing he was right. She still didn’t know how this would all end and if Ignis risked his life to merely fetch a corpse incubating his child that would make his efforts all for nothing. “You should eat something too, Prompto,” Y/N commented wearily, hating he was merely living off of what water he could get when it was offered. “We will need you at some form of health when we try to escape from here.”

Prompto scoffed at the idea, a crooked smile hooked upon his lips. “I’ll be fine. Women and children first, anyways,” he remarked in kind, turning to a more serious frown as he looked back at the cell door, wishing Ignis would arrive soon.

As the magitek soldiers continued to patrol the palace with a few other human officers, Ignis remained out of sight best he was able with Sal as his guide. “There are so many of them,” he whispered to the machine as his ear and palm rested against the nearby wall he was leaning against in one of the hallways the service tunnel had emptied into. “Sounds to be…ten or so.”

“You are correct; there are nine magitek soldier units and one humanoid officer type that I can pick up with heat surveillance and a general scan of nearby hardware.” The handheld continued to beep in quiet, trying to inspect the location to make sense of it. “This is Sector B, two sectors above the prison area. General Talios runs this level, if I remember right—a man gifted at the usage of broadswords and ice elemency. Seeing as you’re a fire type, I would be cautious about engaging him.”

“I care not for gloating at this point or showing off my prowess, Sal,” the advisor reminded her. “What matters to me is getting to the prison sector without being caught no matter the cost.”

“While I would say we not bother with this sector, this one houses the main locks in the prison two floors below us,” Sal reminded the tactician. “I could sit here and hack the database, but there is no guarantee it would avoid causing an alarm as not even our own technology is allowed to crack into the code without a warning sounding. However, I know Talios—he’s an idiot. He tends to leave things lying around on his desk at the center of the room, and he’ll have the password lock you require there in his paperwork. The main issue here is their guarding locations I am detecting—it would be impossible to make it to the center office undetected with how many are spread apart as they are.”

Ignis turned his head, humming in thought as he too could detect that the rhythm of which the vibrations were set off in regards to the walking machines and Talios was a bit in unison and well organized to where nothing could get through. “That hologram you produced sometime ago…can you do it again as a distraction?”

“What hologram would you like me to manufacture?”

“A small enough daemon that would be logical to be inside the palace.”

“Put me on something then and you best hide out of sight,” Sal insisted as she couldn’t exactly throw the hologram just yet. It was something new she had been tampering with in her downtime, but she could make it walk a certain mile or two about the area if nothing obstructed her.

Doing as Sal suggested, Ignis dropped behind a few crates and things stashed neatly in the hallway while the machine seemed to work her magic. In a matter of no time at all, he could hear this Talios shouting that there was an imp running loose in Sector B. The soldiers as well as the general scattered in different locations into the nearby hallway to find it and take it down.

“Quickly,” Sal insisted to Ignis in a whispered tone as she was tracking their whereabouts, noting that the room was clear.

Taking to his feet in a hurry, Ignis grabbed Sal in haste when the hologram vanished out of sight down a connecting corridor to leave everyone confused as to its whereabouts to try and grab the password he would need to get Sal to shut down the prison locks.

Ivayle heard Talios’ cries of a daemon having entered the palace somehow, leaving her confused and on the alert as she ventured over to the transmission to intercept it and respond. “What do you mean a daemon is on the premises? No daemon has been inside these walls in years unless marked to be so for experimentation purposes!”

“I don’t know what to tell you, Grand Master,” spoke Talios from the other side of the intercom. “I saw it, but it quickly disappeared out of sight just now. Must be somewhere else in the building.”

Ivayle was still skeptical. In the past several years they had been wiser with their carrying of such creatures to the city…so how did this happen? She didn’t even know who to blame. Turning her attention to the surveillance cameras, she began to circle through the outside to see if there was indeed somewhere the daemon could have entered and as she did so, she came upon two destroyed magitek soldiers guarding the old service tunnel.

Blue eyes narrowing in anger that something had gotten in, she trailed the cameras along the reasonable pathway it could have taken only to notice some of them were no longer functioning or purposefully pushed in another direction. “No daemon would be smart enough to do this…”

Her first instinct was to check the prison sector to which, much to her surprise, Prompto, Gladiolus, and Y/N were still very much imprisoned to lead them out of the way of being the culprit. It was then her blood began to boil as she realized there was still very much one person she hadn’t been able to locate in the past several days, making her trigger the camera leading to Talios’ office quarters in Sector B, catching a glimpse of Ignis holding the handheld that Ivayle easily recognized as belonging to Y/N.

“That sneaky bastard…” Ivayle sneered angrily though harboring some form of inner respect for the man given the lengths he went through just to make it to Gralea and somehow remain undetected for so long. “General Talios, a Lucian intruder is breaking into your office! Stop him! He is going to break into the prison ward!” Pulling back from the transmission, Ivayle looked disapprovingly down at the camera that was locked onto Prompto and Y/N. “You will  ** _pay_**  for this treachery, Y/N…!”

As the prison doors opened once more, Prompto looked up in haste as Y/N continued to rest off her discomfort and illness best she was able. Normally, the sound of magitek soldiers was hardly anything new, but he heard the heeled boots of someone else…someone he knew wore such a thing and carried such an aggressive weight to them as well. The moment Ivayle took to the bars on the other side of the prison, Prompto growled and got on the defensive when she entered. He was told to keep his hidden blade a secret, but if he had to ram it into this Grand Master to expose it…so be it.

“Good news, Y/N,” spoke Ivayle, prompting the Templar to wake up from where she resided in Prompto’s lap. “Your fellow companion has come to rescue you all…” Summoning a dagger in her hands, the Grand Master growled angrily. “Too bad what he finds will be your corpses!”

Seeing Ivayle charge at Y/N with the dagger, Prompto pushed the Templar out of the way and lunged quickly at the Grand Master where his gloved hands grabbed the blade in such a crude manner Y/N noted his hands were bleeding. “ ** _RUN!_** ” Prompto ordered, figuring this was a good enough distraction as any for at least Y/N to get free.

Scurrying to her feet in haste, Y/N ran free in hopes to reconvene with Ignis or at least locate the King. Ducking out of the oncoming attacks of the magitek soldiers that had joined Ivayle, she managed to make it out of the prison sector but not without feeling horrible regret at leaving behind Prompto and Gladiolus. Tears blinding her as she tried to shake away her doubts and concerns, Y/N heard the alarms going off all about the palace shortly after her escape.

Ivayle removed her dagger, grabbing at Prompto’s face to push him back against the wall so harshly that he was rendered unconscious for a time upon impact, body slumping to the floor. “Get her! Get Y/N—I don’t care if she’s alive or dead! Just bring me her body!”


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (And you guys can kill me later lol) One more chapter and an epilogue then it be done, fam. Then on to my other commissions~.

“8653,” spoke Sal to Ignis over the alarm that was now sounding upon her scanning the documents on Talios’ desk to locate the passkey. “Hurry and plug me into the computer! Who knows if the daemon trick triggered the alarm or not, but either way, I don’t want to find if it is truly us they have spotted.”

Plugging Sal into the main computer within the general’s room at her command, Ignis let her do what she needed. “How long will this take?” Ignis asked, worry laboring his tone at the very idea they too could be caught and dragged into imprisonment.

“Depends on what else you may need. I am just here to unlock the prison block and remove the weapon restriction there so your friends have a means to protect themselves,” responded the handheld. “All and all, five minutes or less.”

Ignis’ hands landed flat upon the desk, inhaling slowly as nervousness embraced his form. “Can you locate Noct while you’re at it and Gladio?”

Before Sal could hope to respond, the door violently flung open as Talios, a man quite tall with plated armor of gold and black with short, auburn hair glared at Ignis as he entered the room to find the intruder Ivayle had warned him of. “Back away from there, Lucian dog!” Talios ordered, summoning his broadsword that was nearly half the size of him and twelve inches wide with decorative designs. “Or your head will roll!”

Hearing the air about him cut violently upon the sword swinging in his direction regardless his choice in the matter, Ignis responded by summoning his spear to use it as a shield to block the oncoming weapon of the general. However, Talios was indeed quite strong and Ignis found himself nearly falling to one knee just trying to keep the sword off of him. Remembering all that was at risk, the advisor found renewed strength and pushed his spear up and over to knock Talios back and off kilter, leaving the man open for an attack to which the end of the spear’s blade struck and cut across the armor Ignis felt vibrate down the length of his polearm.

The armor was partially damaged, leaving Talios to growl in displeasure that a man who kept his eyes closed was able to wound him in such a way. “You don’t even have the brass to look at me when you fight? Confident are you?” His words hissed venomously as he steadied his sword once more in one hand.

“I do not look because I cannot,” Ignis insisted, not wishing to raise tempers in the matter. “My eyes open merely gaze upon nothing.”

Talios’ frustration melted away for a mere moment at the remark, seemingly shocked. “A blind man was able to make it this far and fights in the ranks of the King of Lucis…?” He sounded winded, as though that were impossible. Talios shook away the surprise, anger gritting his teeth once more as he squeezed his grasp even more cruelly upon the handle of his weapon. “I will treat you as any other foe, so do not expect mercy from me!”

Ignis pulled back his spear to rest behind him in his grasp, squatting down to prepare himself to do a high jump. “I would expect no less! Prepare yourself!” the Hand of the King demanded, jumping into the air to lunge forward with his weapon at the ready to strike down where he heard General Talios.

Y/N had no idea where she was even headed. She knew the palace well enough but knowing she was now a wanted enemy of her own homeland made her panic and her logic harder to grasp. Her heels dug into the metal flooring when she saw a group of soldiers just at the end of the corridor she was running down. Hand upon her nauseous stomach, Y/N turned quickly to hide out of sight beyond the nearby door that she hadn’t even bothered to look at—unaware of where it would truly lead her except out of sight.

Back against the cool sheets of plating, she panted heavily with her teeth cringed as she slowly fell to her backside in defeat. She left Prompto and Gladiolus back in prison with Ivayle…They could die.

“All I’m good at is leaving people to die in my stead,” she whispered pathetically, shaking her head at the lengths in which Prompto went to to be certain she was alright. Y/N knew he would have preferred it this way but the Templar’s conscious was nagging at her to go back and help them.

Steadily rising to her feet and wiping the sorrow from her features, she felt the ever warm and gentle light of something radiating in the room not too far away. Y/N brought her arm to her face to try and bat away the harshness of the glow but as her eyes adjusted, realizing the room she was standing in was where King Noctis had been contained, bound still in pain there upon the wall in the vast containment room that was quite large on all sides as if to give him room to use the Ring of the Lucii if ever unleashed. However, the light wasn’t coming from him…but from some white figure floating in front of him.

A woman, it seemed, with blond haired bound in an upper ponytail with a silky white gown resided before him. The figure looked familiar to Y/N but she had a hard time placing her. She looked like a ghost…or a god given the heavenly glow. “Your Majesty…?”

The woman turned then, her blue eyes merely catching Y/N for a second before she dissipated as if truly never having been there at all.

Was she hallucinating? The woman was just there and now nothing remained but the bound King. Realizing what she was gawking at, Y/N panicked for a moment and looked about the room in a hurry. “I-I have to get him down somehow…!” However, in her frantic search she realized there were no panels in which to release him—the mechanism was probably buried elsewhere in another room or Noctis could only be released by a computer command, but who knew where to start?

“D-Don’t worry,” Y/N insisted as she pressed her hand on the wall where Noctis hung, unconscious and bloodied still. “I’ll be right back to save you—I promise!” Hurrying to the door once more, she was cautious of who was outside in the connecting corridor before making her escape in hopes to locate what she needed to find without being caught herself.

Any moment Ignis had his other hand freed, he unleashed a fire spell at Talios even if the man would try to retaliate with one of ice in return. Ignis could feel the cut of the ice against his skin and clothes, ignoring the small trickle of blood from the wounds the attack would excite. The man could certainly keep up and while the warrior in Ignis admired it, he found frustration as well in knowing he was being blocked from this enemy in regards to freeing his friends.

The hook of his polearm got caught in Talios’ broadsword during one swing, causing the advisor to the Crown to sway downward with such paralyzing force that Ignis collapsed with a gasp as the air was knocked from him upon hitting the cold, hard flooring. In the small second he tried to get up, Talios’ foot stomped down on his throat to restrain him. With what strength Ignis had in the moment, he tried to keep the general’s foot from pushing down much further as it could choke him. In the darkness of his mind, he felt the broadsword move inches to his face.

“It’s over for you, Lucian,” Talios insisted with triumph through his clenched teeth as he readied his weapon to impale Ignis with it.

“ ** _NO!_** ” screamed a familiar voice to the two of them, causing Talios to look over his shoulder at the female yelling at him. With the familiar sounds of a scuffle coming from the hallway she was in, Y/N decided to see what was going on, but had not the strength to witness Ignis die before her as she saw him at the mercy of Talios’ blade. Her legs moved at what pace she could manage towards the two to stop it.

“Y/N…?” Unaware of her being labeled a traitor, it gave the general a moment of confusion, weakening his stance and hold on Ignis.

Feeling the opportunity given to him, Ignis called upon his spear yet again and impaled General Talios, running him through in one swift act.

Y/N had witnessed Ignis take down daemons before but she had never seen the life of another die at his hands. Witnessing the cruel act, the woman corralled her gasp with her hands, which clasped over her mouth. The blood marring the spear’s end and the length that had gone through him soon stained the floor, the life slowly disappearing from Talios’ green eyes as he struggled to stay alive and continue the fight.

From where he lay, Ignis could tell Y/N was in horrified shock to which he quickly took to his feet and hurried to where he could hear her heart beating in a rapid rhythm as well as whining in discontent at the sight her tearful eyes could not pry from. His arms embracing her tightly, the advisor turned her sight from the gruesome scene as Talios fell to the floor in a lifeless manner. “Shhh, shhh,” Ignis whispered against Y/N’s head, letting his chest block the scene behind him. “It’s okay; it’s okay, don’t look,” he urged still quietly as he found relief at just being able to hold Y/N once more.

In desperation, Y/N clung to Ignis like a small child in frantic need to be comforted by their parent as she sobbed uncontrollably. The scene was enough to fuel her with the reminder this wasn’t over. Prompto and Gladiolus were still down in the prison ward and Noctis was still chained and in confinement on the same floor in another room and Ivayle was still very much alive and well. If Ignis struggled with General Talios there was no guarantee he would live against her spear techniques. “I can’t believe this is happening…!”

Ignis knelt to the floor, taking Y/N with him as he cradled her face in his touch to indeed sense it was her as his fingers carefully shepherding about her features and did what they could in comforting her. “Thank the gods you’re alive…!” Ignis breathed, the warmth of his praise ever evident upon Y/N’s lips as he spoke before kissing her at least once to sate his desire for such. His hands moved from her face, feeling the rest of her as he did notice there was a sort of sickly chill to her lips alone and took notice that Y/N was a bit thinner than last he remembered. “The chill of death clings to you ever so…!”

“It’s worse for your friends,” Y/N insisted, sniffling back her sorrow. “I left Prompto in the cell with Ivayle attacking him and your other friend, Gladio, is down there too…he’s too sick and weary to even sit upright.”

The advisor counted his blessings in the matter they were, so far, still alive. “Sal is shutting down the restriction field in that sector and gaining access to it as we speak.”

“So you found her?” Y/N asked, wiping her tears clean as she took to her feet with Ignis’ aid. She did her best not to look in the direction of where General Talios lay dead.

“Yes, in your chocobo’s saddlebag when I summoned them back.” Ignis guided her to Talios’ office where Sal was continuing her work. “Do you know where His Majesty is?”

“I saw him just down the way,” Y/N answered gesturing though forgetting she was speaking to a blind man in that moment and her movement would mean nothing to him. “He’s in some containment room that looks big enough to house larger daemons like behemoths and the like. It was Room…B-42 or something like that.” She had to admit that in her worry of him being held for much longer she didn’t get a good look at the number, but Y/N knew it had to be there somewhere. “If you turn right just out here and follow the way down to the next split, you take a left. Stay close to the right side and after ten doors, take the right hallway and follow that one down till the twentieth door at the left of that corridor—that’s where he is.”

Ignis’ worried frown turned from her as if to repeat her directions and remember them for later, a part of him swearing at himself that Noctis was so close to him. Y/N’s hands covering his cheeks once more to bring him back to attention.

“You need to get Prompto and Gladio first!” Y/N urged in haste. “Last I saw, Ivayle was fighting Prompto when he allowed me to escape, and he is too weak to take her on in the state he’s in. Just…go down to the left of the hallway outside of this room and at the very end there’s an elevator. Push the last button on the bottom and it will take you to the prison ward. I am sure your friends will call to you from there if you need their assistance.”

“The weapon restriction field should be down by now.” The advisor nodded, hating that Noctis was going to have to wait again to be saved. “Do you think you can meet up with us in the room you saw Noctis?”

“I’ll be fine,” Y/N partially lied as she hadn’t any ability to protect herself if another of the generals came after her with soldiers in tow. “Just go—hurry!” As Ignis hurried from her touch to fetch his friends and be certain they were alright, Y/N brought her hands together before her chest as if to pray. Her heart tugged in agony. “Be safe…” Y/N whispered mostly to herself, worried what would happen if he encountered Ivayle.

Ignis knew the stealth mission was over and with all the energy he had to muster, he hurried to the elevator Y/N spoke of and followed her directions to get down the prison ward without much difficulty. Upon the doors opening, he was hardly surprised to be greeted by the sound of magitek soldiers and dealt with them with such ease in regards to his spear and elemental magic. As the soldiers fell to his mercy, he moved to the prison plagues to see if he could make out the numbers by feeling.

“D-23…” he mumbled to himself, hoping to find it as he knew Prompto was there at least. “Gladio? Prompto!” Ignis finally shouted as he was worried he was running out of time to save everyone the further on he went without any indication his friends were close.

“Iggy!” Gladiolus’ voice beckoned to him in weary relief just down the way.

“Gladio!” Hurrying towards the Shield’s tone, Ignis fell to his knees where he realized Gladiolus was indeed kneeling behind the bars. His hands to his friend’s face once he managed to maneuver his arms through the iron bars, the relieved laugh quivered from the advisor as he realized his companion was alright. Y/N wasn’t kidding when she said the others were worse off. Even just touching Gladiolus’ face Ignis could tell the man was fatigued and not of his true self from lack of nutrition and care. “Where’s Prompto?” Ignis asked, hurrying to his feet and forcing the door open when he heard the mechanism unlock on its own.

Taking to his feet, Gladiolus made sure not to overpower Ignis in terms of resting on him for support. “That witch of a Grand Master took him away after knocking him out cold when giving that girl—Y/N I think her name was—a time to escape.”

“We have to get to Noct,” Ignis informed Gladiolus reluctantly as he hurried back to the nearby elevator. “Y/N found where he is in Sector B. After that, we’ll locate Prompto and pray he’s safe.”

Ignis followed Y/N’s instructions to the room where she last saw Noctis to the letter, but upon the door being opened, the two were met with the room being empty. “What the hell…?” Gladiolus grumbled as he saw nothing at all but wide open empty space that was filled with a few outer pipes in the upper area and some old chains of different sizes about the lower part of the room, signifying some daemons were possibly chained down for the Empire’s means. “Where is he?”

“Is he not here?” Ignis asked, confused and a bit worried that he may have taken a wrong turn somewhere.

“I think he was here…” Gladiolus answered with a labored huff at just having to walk the distance he had. “There are a few shackles bound to the wall up ahead that no longer have anything in them, but I can see blood on them as if they were freshly used.”

The Hand of the King cringed painfully at the idea his liege was in trouble. “We’ll wait here out of sight and pray Y/N joins with us soon with some better news, perhaps.”

“Nobody’s going anywhere,” Ivayle insisted as the doors behind the two opened at her command.

Gladiolus turned with Ignis, noticing Prompto was bleeding from the head and very much in the custody of the magitek soldiers behind Ivayle who held Y/N tightly in her grasp, a dagger to the traitor’s throat.

“Give us back our friends!” Gladiolus demanded, pulling from Ignis to give the man his own arms freedom to bear the weapons he needed as he took to his broadsword and shield even if the two felt heavier than usual.

“It will take more than sweet talking, my dear, to have that happen,” Ivayle insisted as she kept the flat of the blade against Y/N’s throat.

“Ignis…!” Y/N shouted even if it meant her throat pushed against the upper sharp part of the blade, cutting her ever slightly in the process.

Ignis’ attention turned to the familiar voice, beckoning to his spear in anger. “Y/N!”

Ivayle watched the two interact, the puzzle pieces falling into place as she raised a single, black brow at the connection the two seemingly had. “Oooh, I see now,” the Grand Master whispered, pulling the dagger from Y/N’s throat and gesturing towards Ignis. “So you’re the one responsible for all of this.” The weapon she held turned downward, threatening to stab Y/N in the stomach in one quick move. It was then Ignis opened his eyes and Ivayle tilted her head curiously at the sight before her. “And you’re blind? Ooh, how interesting. I commend you then for getting as far as you have with such a disability. You can listen to the screams of your lover then—as I butcher her before you!”

Hearing such a threat enraged Ignis and in that quick second he threw his spear in Ivayle’s direction before the dagger she held could hope to strike downward on Y/N’s stomach. Tossing the Templar off to the side, the Grand Master harkened to her spear to block Ignis’ foreseen attack after such a threat. As the two attacked one another, Gladiolus quickly moved to defend Y/N and bring her to her feet.

“Are you alright?” Gladiolus asked, knowing he wouldn’t have the strength to break Prompto free for the time being but knew if Ignis won this, there was a moment they would have a chance to escape as the machines of the Empire were usually easy to bring down.

Having her enemy help her up was foreign to Y/N but she accepted his hand and took to her feet with his help. “Yes, but what about Ignis? What are we going to do!”

As Ignis and Ivayle clashed in the air with a flurry of blows, it was the Grand Master who soon fell from the sky when Ignis slashed across her chest and caught her off guard, though Ivayle was able to land upon her feet at the very least. Blood dripping from the corner of her mouth, she paid it no mind. Furiously, she gazed at the advisor that apposed her when he landed not far from her in the containment space. When the nearby magitek soldiers threatened to join in, Ivayle raised her hand to their advancements. “No! You stand your ground,” she ordered. “I am going to take this one on my own…”

“A one-on-one?” Ignis asked, pulling his weapon to his side as he felt Ivayle was still gathering her strength in the moment of making a bargain. “And what fairness will this lead for us if there is such a thing in your line of work?”

“If you beat me, then you and your friends go free,” Ivayle offered as she used her spear as a means to stand after Ignis struck her heatedly a few times in those quick exchange of attacks. “If I destroy you, then what remains of you and your friends will swear your allegiance to my King’s control forever!”

While Y/N had been a witness to Ignis’ acts on the battlefield, she knew Ivayle even better. The woman was the best when it came to the usage of spears. There was hardly any other that had even brought her down to so much as a sweat. To herself, Y/N shook her head pleading for there to be another way.

“Then let’s begin for I grow tired of having to wait for my friends returned to me!” Ignis demanded, readying his weapon once more and charging at Ivayle to begin his attack anew.

The sound of metal clashing was cruel and swift from both sides, making Y/N still astounded that Ignis was blind as he appeared as though he were able to see just fine with how precise his accuracy was. The Grand Master would easily strike upon Ignis in his heated rage the advisor was trying to keep under control and not blind his actions. The pain was numbing to him, only encouraging his own attacks as he managed to catch Ivayle off guard by turning his weapon around and using the end of it to smash her across the face to where she fell to the floor harshly from the unexpected assault in time.

“You’re mine!” Ignis growled shoving his weapon downward where he ran through the Grand Master, leaving a horrific, blooded cry to bound off of the walls as he ended her.

Y/N gasped in horror, turning her sights from the scene as quickly as possible even if it meant burying her face against a man she hardly knew. It was hard to even know what to feel in the moment. As vicious and cold as Ivayle was to her, there were moments that manipulated Y/N’s feelings towards her and made her feel that was truly the only family she had left no matter how cold and abusive her superior was. But her Grand Master would have killed them all, and Y/N had to remind herself that she had better more loving people around her than what she had lost after all those years with her.

As the woman gasped and gulped for air, Ignis knelt down beside Ivayle as he pulled the spear from her body in one quick motion. “Where is my King?” he demanded to know, hearing the woman choke on her laugh.

“You…want your King…?” Ivayle smirked. With what strength she had, she pulled a handheld from her pant’s pocket and pushed a single button, which seemed to trigger the sound of a hidden door just off to the right of the room. “You may have…your King…!”

Gladiolus and the others turned to the swishing sound of the mechanical doors opening, noticing Noctis standing there with the cruel device strapped upon him. The jagged sides of the golden Crown of Madness dug into his flesh, keeping it in place as Noctis stumbled forward with his eyes hazed over in a form of confusion placed upon him. Hand with the Ring of the Lucii upon it trembling as he outstretched it in a means to use it.

“Get behind me!” Gladiolus demanded, urging Y/N to do so as he readied his shield for the oncoming spell he knew Noctis was about to unleash.

A powerful burst shot forth from the piece of legend, knocking Gladiolus back as he hadn’t the strength to even stand upright as it were. Y/N fell with him, collapsing on the floor as Noctis struggled with himself after such a brazen move upon his allies.

“ ** _NOCT!_** ” Ignis yelled, hoping to bring him back to his senses as Ivayle soon lay at the advisor’s feet dead. Upon the King hearing his name, Noctis teleported before his friend and even if he fought with all his might not to do so, a radiant holy spell ignited and seared Ignis horribly to the point part of his upper clothing burned away in half.

Prompto struggled against the soldiers that still held him and refused to move as they were ordered not to attack Noctis at current or enter the fray, leaving him easily open for an attack by the ring as well. “N-Noct! Snap out of it, buddy! It’s us—we’re your friends!”

Hearing the pains of his friends and even the beckoning call of Prompto, Noctis’ illusions in his mind began to wane ever so. His hand upon his forehead where the red, center jewel began to swirl with an ungodly mist, he hissed in agony, Noctis called out to them, “G-Guys…I can hear you…b-but I can’t see you…!” Grabbing at the wrist of the hand that held the ring, he did everything he could to stop himself but he was so tired and the battle with such a device was becoming a challenge. “G-Get out…Get out of my head!” He roared, grabbing onto the crown and yelling in anguish.

Noticing what Noctis was about to do, the Templar panicked after gaining some information on the Crown of Madness thanks to Sal obtaining what she needed for it. “He mustn’t do that!” Y/N yelled frantically. “If he rips that crown off, it’ll kill him!”

Ignis took what strength he could find and ran towards Noctis to grab at his wrists and pull them from his head. “Noct, it’s me—Ignis! You need to fight it! We’re here! We’re going to help you!”

Gladiolus saw the Ring shine with a familiar light that made him panic. “He’s going to use death…” he spoke in a horrified whisper but loud enough for Y/N to hear. “ ** _IGGY—GET AWAY FROM THERE!_** ”

The demand was horrifying to hear and the name of the spell alone was enough to send chills down Y/N’s spine as the Shield of the King struggled to his feet once more to try and get between the two somehow before anybody could be hurt or worse. Prompto continued to struggle as well, trying to get free to use his weapons and aid the fight. He hated what a few short days of poor food and water had done to his strength.

“I am not leaving him!” Ignis insisted firmly only to be pushed back at a distance from another force of power that he wasn’t expecting. As he struggled back to his feet, he felt the cone of death grapple his body as the Ring of the Lucii attempted to drain him of his life force. “N-Noct…You have to fight it…!” He pleaded, trying with all his might to still reach his companion and King, hand outstretched pitifully as the debuff of the ring slowed his movements as Ignis attempted to close the gap between them.

“R-Run…! I-Ignis,  ** _run_**!” Noctis pleaded tearfully as he found himself struggling to retract the spell.

Y/N shot to her feet in the moment of it all happening. While death scared her as any other, she wasn’t going to go through life having lost someone else she loved. As Ignis was already weak and not expecting someone to come up beside him, Y/N easily knocked him out of the way of the death spell. The intense power of the ring shot through the Templar harshly, sending her back and against the wall at such a horrible angle it was hardly the ring that needed to end her life when she fell lifelessly to the floor.

“ ** _Y/N!_** ” Prompto yelled, feeling his own heart rip apart in his chest at seeing her fall there to her death after the promise he swore to her. Not able to handle the sight of his family falling apart before him, the gunman used a sort of power he didn’t know he had to break the arm of one of the magitek soldiers holding him to summon his gun and shoot the center gem that was there upon the crown—the only idea he had to go on that it could truly be behind everything in regards to controlling Noctis.

The bullet destroying the protective shield of the confusion spell, Noctis’ head jerked violently back from the impact of the unforeseen bullet. Teetering back on his feet for a moment, the King fell to his knees before collapsing forward at exhausting himself from the mind control illusion he was poisoned with.

Anger riling the Shield in the matter at hand, he used his own strength to swing his broadsword back and destroy the magitek soldiers that were remaining in their way while Prompto handled the rest upon being freed. With the dust cleared, Gladiolus limped towards Noctis to aid him to at least sit upright in his arms. “Noct, are you alright!” he exclaimed, shaking the King to try and rouse him as he looked for a means to remove the cruel crown upon his head.

Noctis cringed, hissing through his teeth as he tried to regain his sanity. “Y..Yeah…” His words were hushed as he fell into Gladiolus’ arms, wishing to just lie there and rest, but in the moment he remembered vaguely everything that he had done and looked about at the destruction he brought.

“Iggy!” Prompto panicked, running towards the advisor to notice he was very much alive at least even if horribly hurt from the holy spell he took a hefty impact from and the bit of the death spell as well. “A-Are you okay…?”

“What happened…?” Ignis asked, turning onto his hands and knees before slowly rising to his feet with Prompto’s assistance. Realizing that he was pushed out of the way by someone, the tactician tried to hone in on her voice or at least her breathing. “Y/N…! Where is she!”

Prompto bit at his lower lip, brow wrinkled in dismay as he hadn’t the heart to speak it. His blue eyes turning to Y/N’s body where she lay with her back to them, he felt tears prick at the corner of his eyes as he wasn’t even sure what he should tell Ignis. “She’s umm…”

He didn’t like the weight in Prompto’s tone, making the advisor move forward with his arms outstretched to search for her. “Y/N!” he called, getting no response but was able to feel the weight of her body the more he walked upon the floor as it echoed out to him upon each step he took. Falling to his knees before her, he made sense of the position she was in before bringing her into his arms. “Y/N—!” Ignis’ heart wretched with emotional sickness as he felt her head roll to the side in his embrace, making her body feel weighed and as lifeless as ever in just that moment. Realizing he couldn’t even hear her heart, he panicked as his palm resided upon her chest to realize it had indeed stopped. “No…! No, no, this cannot be…!”

His body trembling and his voice cracking as his throat burned upon each breath he made, Ignis rested his cheek upon her head as he cradled her close while rocking inconsolable in the cold grip of loss. The vocal pain reverberated about the metal walls as he threw his head back and cried hysterically while his friends remained quiet nearby, allowing him to grieve as he needed.

His forehead upon Y/N’s, his tears trickled down his features and stained her own as he whispered painfully to her. “You promised you wouldn’t leave me,” he reminded her, biting at his quivering lip as Ignis thought for sure he could save everybody no matter the cost.

As Noctis watched with indescribable guilt at the scene his attention turned to the ghostly apparition that suddenly passed him and ventured towards Ignis and Y/N. “Luna…!” he gasped, recognizing the blond woman as she seemed to glide across the floor with the Staff of the Oracle in hand.

Prompto took notice of her as well, bowing his head in respect to the angel as she made her stop there before the grieving advisor and the passed Templar.

While he could not see her, Ignis could sense something was indeed there given the warmth of the radiant glow that toyed with his abused flesh, which seemed to gradually heal at the touch of another as Lunafreya’s hand made tender contact with his cheek scarred by tears when she knelt before him. Even as Ignis tried to find her with his eyes, he continued to see nothing. No words were spared but the Oracle smiled before grabbing onto the staff, closing her eyes and focusing.

It was as though she were in a dream. Y/N knew where she was as the air tasted different and the grass beneath her feet hardly felt as she once knew it against her. She stood in the spiritual realm with the daughter she could have had resting in her arms. As the heavy mist of the realm departed, giving light to Lady Lunafreya and Gentiana standing at the opposite end of where she was, Y/N brought the infant closer to her chest with tears cascading down her features.

“It hurts…” Y/N whispered pitifully in regards to losing so much in so little time. “It hurts so much…”

“You have showed great kindness and sacrifice to people you once looked upon as your enemy,” Gentiana spoke, her words soft yet resonating so firmly in Y/N’s ears she swore the woman was closer than she appeared in her mind. “The foreign King you harbored disdain and fear towards you helped save from his chains of torment, sparing many in the process.”

Y/N raised her head, watching as Lady Lunafreya moved closer to where she resided as Gentiana spoke. Soon, the former Oracle was but a mere few inches from Y/N and it was there her arms opened as if to ask for the daughter the Templar held.

“As such, the Oracle has pleaded with the gods for you the choice of renewed life,” the messenger of the gods continued, her hands folded before her as she slowly came closer behind Lady Lunafreya. “The gods have accepted, but under one condition, Y/N.”

Y/N’s eyes widened as she still kept a firm hold on the soul that would have belonged to her child, acting as though she were truly there in her embrace.

“The child will be fated to dawn the Trident of the Oracle from the King of Kings and take the place of that which has fallen at the hands of darkness years ago,” Gentiana concluded, soon at the side of Lunafreya there in the astral plane.

“But…but I don’t know how to teach her to be an Oracle,” Y/N confessed tearfully, knowing only so little of their destiny in life and a part of her fearing it for her daughter should they come back as she knew it carried quite the weight.

“The Lady Lunafreya will be her guiding star in such matters,” the messenger continued gently. “Fear not the path, Y/N, for it is heavily guarded for the rebirth of the Oracle.”

As Y/N gazed to the sky that was blue and full of light, she swore she saw the other Astrals presiding over the agreement. “Y-Yes,” she reluctantly agreed upon, handing over the child to Lunafreya as she seemed to be asking for her with her outstretched arms. “If it means she gets a chance to live again and see her father…then I accept anything.”

Lunafreya’s palm graced the cheek of Y/N, a heavenly glow radiating from her touch as she attempted to renew the fallen woman’s soul once more while Gentiana gracefully caressed the forehead of the infant in which the Oracle held. “Then go back to him,” Lunafreya insisted with a smile, her voice soothing and radiating a motherly warmth. “No lover should face the world without the other…This I know.”

“The child will be well protected inside of you and thereafter, Y/N,” Gentiana swore, moving her fingertips from the baby’s forehead as it stirred ever so in Lunafreya’s arms.

Y/N struggled to stay in the realm in which she stood much longer, finding it all slipping away and turning to darkness before her mouth parted and she gasped as though breaking the surface of water for the first time and drawing breath she thought she would be without. Her body quivered as she felt the embrace of Ignis upon her, the remnants of his tears upon her face.

“Y/N…?” Ignis gasped in disbelief as he felt her move in his arms, sensing her heart beating feverishly in her chest once more.

Realizing she was indeed back, Y/N looked up at the looming figure of the advisor. A gasping breath of excitement quivered past her lips as she touched upon his cheek to feel the warmth of it yet again. “Ignis…!”

“Y/N! Y/N, you’re alive!” he praised, his forehead resting upon hers as he cradled her face to kiss her time and time again in relief that by some divine intervention she had been brought back to him. Laughing out his praise quietly between them as he continued to rock with her in his arms, the tears of pain had been cleansed to joy. “I thought I lost you…” Ignis whispered between them as his nose brushed against the bridge of hers.

Y/N dared not to add anything to that breath of praise; instead, she brought his lips to hers and kissed him in adoration once more.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue will be later. I wasn’t expecting this one to end up so long… x-x; Oops. The Queen, son, and wife belonging to Gladio are mainly made by Marta with me fashioning up the Queen and her look at my own design.

Moving onward with the group was hardly an option the moment Noctis and the others were freed from Gralea. Given how weak everybody was, Y/N managed to find a very off the beaten path motel that she knew the Empire wouldn’t come looking for them so everybody could recover from their ordeal before finding the energy to move forward to the docks to head back to Lucis. While Ignis insisted Y/N take it easy as well, she felt the pity the gods bestowed upon her was enough of a justified reason not to be so and aided Ignis with the others till at least Prompto got back on his feet to assist with Gladiolus and Noctis.

The King was fast asleep most of the time, obviously having the worst of it when it dealt with the aftermath of being forced to dawn the Crown of Madness. While it was a bit hard to be around him considering all that she assisted in with the Empire, Y/N struggled with the thought of helping the King; but, especially as he lay resting, he appeared a normal man as any who was doing his best to stay alive just to get back home to his wife and son.

Y/N smiled to herself in that fact after tending to the bandages that were in place about his head where the crown had pierced his skin, causing horrible marks and injuries to him. Taking to her feet, she took the bowl of blooded water and used bandages and headed to the washroom to refresh the bowl and discard the gauze. As she did so, the door opened shortly after to reveal Prompto who appeared to be merely following her inside.

“You know a knock would be nice,” Y/N teased as she began to clean her hands. “Seeing as we all have to share a bathroom and bedroom right now.”

“I saw you come in here,” Prompto whispered with a shake of his head. “I knew you were just going to be emptying the bowl.”

Still, the Templar shrugged with a quick raise of her brow. “You never know.”

Prompto playfully scoffed at her teasing words only to have the look fade away into a worried frown. “How do you feel?”

Y/N gazed up from the cleaning she was doing. “Mm?”

“You know…” Prompto paused and looked about nervously, taking an extra step away from the door to be certain his words didn’t carry. “The baby and all of that.” Sorrow pained him as he remembered that horrible fight days ago. “You looked like you… ** _died_**.”

“I did die,” Y/N whispered in return although a bit hesitantly. “Or at least…I think I did.” She struggled to remember that encounter with the woman named Lunafreya and the raven haired messenger beside her. “The things I can vaguely remember were standing in an open field with a baby in my arms, feeling nothing but pain as I felt I lost everything.” Y/N turned the water off, letting her hands reside there on the counter even if wet. “There was a blond woman there who I think was an Oracle at one point—.”

“—Lady Lunafreya?” Prompto interrupted with a curious widening of his eyes, remembering the spirit of her had approached Ignis and Y/N from what he witnessed.

“Yeah,” Y/N responded, a small smile forming upon her lips. “That’s what she called herself. The name sounds familiar and she looks like someone I recall, but I couldn’t place her.”

“How would you not know Lady Lunafreya?” Prompto asked with a small laugh in his words. “She was the youngest Oracle of Tenebrae before her passing ten years ago.”

“Oh.” Y/N paused and glanced back at the mirror before her as if to conjure more of the visions of that encounter. “All of that was before my time in the ranks of the Empire, if I am to be honest, so I never really interacted with her at all or had a reason to. I heard her voice now and again on the radio channels.”

“Well, uh, what did she say?” Prompto probed, finding it weird that the Oracle would indeed bring someone back to life without a reason.

“She was with some woman—long, black hair who always seemed to speak with her eyes closed as if in concentration, and it was she who offered me a second chance at life at Lunafreya’s asking as long as…” Y/N lost the want to continue. Even with Ignis she never spoke to him of her vision and what had happened. If she did, it would mean she’d have to tell him the truth—that she died holding his baby. The last thing she needed or wanted right now was to add more guilt upon everyone. She rested her hand upon her stomach that she could feel was growing from the size of the child. “…I’ll, mmm, I’ll talk about that with Ignis in time, really.”

“Gentiana and the Oracle let you live?” Prompto gazed off to the side, hard in thought. “Gods rarely do such things unless at a price…” His blue eyes found her swiftly. “You, uh…You didn’t offer up anything, did you?”

Y/N shook her head quickly. Even if she struck a deal, she felt the deal wasn’t a heavy one. It would be for her child, but the Templar felt she had all the time in the world to figure that out. “No,” she whispered in secret though her soft tone implied she was merely a bit exhausted from aiding everyone as they needed in the last few days, drying her words of any excitement in the matter. “What I did may aid Eos once more, but…I don’t know.”

Seeing the weary concern on her face, Prompto placed his hand to rest upon her shoulder in a means to comfort her. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to protect you as I promised. If I hadn’t gotten caught, I could have helped you.”

She smiled at Prompto’s words, shaking her head at his wish to place blame upon himself. “You saved us all in the end, Prompto,” Y/N reminded him. Her hand upon his freckled cheek, she kissed the other as thanks before embracing him tightly.

Prompto’s arms raised in a hesitant means to hug her back, letting the feeling sink in. His embrace comforting her in time, the Crownsguard assassin buried his nose within her hair where she felt him sigh nasally in relief that everything was indeed for the most part over and everyone was on the mend. “You should tell him,” he insisted once more in regards to the baby.

Y/N pulled from the hug, looking up at Prompto with a shake of her head. “Not right now. I still have to face my crimes against King Noctis and Lucis, and I do not want a baby to tilt the scale in what I deserve. Also, I would prefer nobody feel guilt or worry that the child may very well be dead inside of me with all that happened.”

He scoffed playfully with a lopsided grin. “Noct isn’t going to prosecute you after all you did, Y/N. I don’t really see him doing that.”

“Maybe, but whatever he so chooses, I will accept it regardless,” confessed Y/N, hands to her chest in hopes for mercy.

With everyone tended to for the day, Y/N found rest upon her bed at the motel with great relief. As she was merely lying on the mattress with her eyes closed, Y/N did hear the door open and close quietly as Ignis reentered the room from his time fetching the bottled water that she had requested moments ago. The bed shifted upon him sitting on the edge of it, urging her awake with a gentle rub to her shoulder.

“Y/N,” he called out tenderly, not wanting to disturb the others. Ignis felt her move and turn onto her side all the more at his words. “Here’s the water you asked for.”

Sitting upright in the bed, she shifted over just a bit to allow room for Ignis to get situated under the covers next if he so chose to. “Thank you,” she breathed in relief as she was feeling a mixture of dehydration and hunger. Y/N knew the hunger was from the child stealing a good part of the food she was ingesting but she dared not to tell Ignis of it right away even if she knew she had to in time. Maybe after her punishment would be good? Sadly, it would be awhile till she got to Insomnia and by that time, there was no telling how big she would appear. By then it might be too obvious to those traveling with her; especially Ignis if he managed to touch her there.

Ignis’ fingers casually moved along Y/N’s hairline, shepherding away stray strands he could feel from her face. “How do you feel, my dear?”

Y/N sighed through her nostrils, screwing the top of the water back on after having her fill of it. “Far better, really and a bit…different in many ways.”

“Oh?” Ignis probed as he began to unfasten the buckles on his boots to remove them there at the bedside, getting comfortable to where he could move under the covers with Y/N. His arms embraced her, chin resting upon the top of her head as they soon lied together.

“Niflheim has always been my home, and I’ve never felt such a stranger to it before,” Y/N confessed quietly, getting comfortable in his embrace. Just the scent of him made her heart relax as she nuzzled against his chest in content. “And yet, I never thought I would be relieved to escape from here.”

Ignis hummed in thought, palm stroking the back of her head tenderly. “In time you will leave behind your troubles you faced with the Empire who mistreated you,” he reminded Y/N in kind. “Soon it will all be over, and we can focus on the two of us with aims for a family when in Insomnia.”

Hearing that last part, Y/N smiled nervously—relieved Ignis couldn’t see it. “Yeah,” she merely breathed out, nuzzling against his chest. “…A family.”

————————————–

When Noctis and Gladiolus were able to find their feet in time, the group boarded the boat and headed to Lucis. While Noctis was informed of Y/N and who she truly was at the hands of Ignis in secret to the Templar woman, it appeared the King was fine to let her roam about under Ignis’ and Prompto’s watch as she so chose.

“…Besides, if you trust her,” Y/N remembered hearing Noctis say just beyond the door of the hotel room, “then I trust you in the matter, Iggy.”

It gave her relief but also worried her as it sounded like the King was unsure of what to say in all of this. But Y/N had to confess, she didn’t know him all that well so a lot of how he expressed himself was very vague to her and left her guessing. A part of her wanted to ask Ignis how Noctis felt about her position in this war at current, but she held her tongue on the matter and merely used what time she had to enjoy being in the embraces of the man she loved—uncertain if she would be pulled from him in the end or not.

It was a bit easier to sneak in food on occasion underneath his nose, leaving Y/N with little worry in regards to him gaining an understanding in her increased appetite. However, she did begin to find problems in her clothing not fitting much as of late. “I’m going to need to buy new clothes since I left practically everything back in Niflheim,” she commented aloud, knowing that would be fine to say to a man who couldn’t see her standing in front of the body length mirror to notice the size difference she was obtaining.

“Would be ideal with all things considered,” said Ignis vaguely from where he sat on the bed.

Hearing him say such a thing, Y/N felt herself beginning to sweat as she thought he may already know. “Wh-Why do you say that?”

Ignis found the stuttered response odd, tilting his head in her direction. “Merely commenting that you’ve worn the same attire for months now, and I know it is not a uniform. I would find it hardly enjoyable to be in the same outfit for too long.”

“Says the man always in the Glaive outfit day in and day out,” Y/N reminded him cheekily though quietly breathed out her anxiety.

“I did preface this by saying ‘none uniform’, love,” Ignis reminded her with a crooked yet brief grin. “We can find you new attire when we arrive at Galdin Quay as there are scarcely many shops here on the boat.”

“Yeah, not really a luxury cruiser,” Y/N scoffed playfully, venturing closer to the bed to embrace Ignis tightly and bury her head against his chest.

The blind assassin complied, moving his arm closest to Y/N to embrace her in return. “You had me worried back there,” Ignis confessed in regards to the fight against Noctis and the Ring of the Lucii.

Y/N’s stomach knotted, not sure what to say in regards to the matter as she didn’t feel now was the right time to be truthful. “I’m alright,” she whispered in hopes to calm his uncertainties. Her fingers slipped through the divide of his, bringing his hand to her lips to kiss his knuckles as though he were royalty. “See? I live and breathe as you do.”

Ignis’ frown deepened regardless. “But I felt your heart,” he reminded her, his fingertips outstretching to caress her chin and about the corner of her mouth. “It rested silently within your chest, and I feared the absolute worst…”

“But I did not die—see?” Y/N kissed his fingertips before letting his palm find rest upon her heart once more where his touch relaxed to something so melodic and welcoming.

“I know what I felt, my dear,” the advisor whispered in earnest. “What truly happened back there? Noct and the others claimed they saw Lady Lunafreya kneeling beside us and then she disappeared.”

Y/N’s heart began to beat wildly at the thought of what to say. “She saved me, I guess,” the Templar whispered in a partial truth. “The vision felt like a dream but…she and I were standing in an open field, and she gave me a second chance at life.”

Ignis’ expression was hard to decipher. It felt to Y/N as though he could hear the cracking of truth in her foundation and was trying to pinpoint the cause. “And that was all? She said nothing of importance to you?”

She sighed softly, hands to Ignis’ cheeks to try and settle his concerns. “What does it matter? We are together, are we not?” Her lips kissed upon his own, hoping to dodge the topic at hand. “I thank her for allowing me to spend what time I have with you, and I’d rather not waste it discussing such upsetting times.”

He had to admit he was curious but at the same time, Ignis knew he should count his blessings the gods took pity on him and Y/N. The taste of her breath made his heart race and fuel his wishes for other things even if he so desired answers regarding that day. His arms took her closer to him once more as Ignis tilted his head to enjoy of her kisses better with his tongue rolling across her lower lip to plead silently for more to which the oral barrier parted, giving him the room he so eagerly yearned for.

Y/N straddled him on the bed upon Ignis moving to his back on the covers, allowing his touch to fondle with her clothing as he saw fit. The sweet taste of his saliva made her forget the world around her in that dangerous minute as she rested upon his figure to enjoy in his warmth and the loving caress of his touch, which soon halted as if startled by something. “What’s wrong?” Y/N asked, not sure what made his fingers curl ever slightly upon the back of her bare skin when he had managed to remove her upper clothing. Unaware of what had caught his attention, Ignis’ hands drifted to her stomach that was a bit larger than before given the circumstances. Y/N inhaled sharply in distress, hoping the advisor didn’t catch the sound as her grasp was quick to take to his and shepherd him away from where his baby was growing in secret.

“Y/N…?” Ignis probed, finding her reaction odd. “Gaining a bit of weight, are we…?”

The comment sounded more like an open to the truth—as if he knew somehow. Did Prompto tell him? No…Y/N knew Prompto would never do such a thing. He just never had that ability in him. “I was starving in those past few weeks no thanks to imprisonment,” she halfheartedly lied. ‘When we get to the Crown City, I am sure I will find a moment or two to shave off the weight if it is a bother.”

“Not a bother, my dear,” commented Ignis in haste, not wishing for her to think otherwise but his eyes opened and even if they gazed right through her, Y/N could tell with that single raise of his brow he was wondering if that was indeed the whole truth of her weight gain. “Merely curious if you’re eating well.”

Y/N passed it off with a nervous yet brief laugh. “I’m fine, Ignis,” she whispered, cradling his cheeks in her hands. “Concern yourself with it later, yeah?” Her hands grabbed onto the collar of his jacket to pull Ignis closer to her. “Right now, I just really need you.”

Hardly a lie in any stretch of the sense as Y/N was aware her hormones were becoming difficult to ignore; especially now that the true troubles were put behind them. Aiding Ignis in removing his clothing, she discarded them upon the floor for the time being allowing the two lovers to take pleasure in an emotional and loving embrace with merely their skin to blanket the other. Y/N’s leg moved over the back of the advisor’s thigh as she relished in the sensation of being with one another.

“I truly worried I would never have the honor of feeling you against me as this once more,” he whispered, his fingertips gently digging into her back as if to remind himself it wasn’t a dream. “The sweet taste of your breath…the feel of your heart beating lovingly so against my chest…the euphoric warmth of your body upon my own…” His words derailed, Ignis burying his lips against the nook of her neck with a quivering moan at the sensations that beckoned to him so.

Y/N fell prey to using his weakness, breathing upon his ear in loving ways before nibbling and gently tugging on his earlobe with her teeth. A moan quaked from Ignis’ lips in haste, his heart rapid in rhythm to the point even she could feel it drumming against her breast. “Then don’t leave me waiting,” Y/N teased erotically.

Her triumphant moment was merely so, Ignis taking to her wrists and escorting her upon her back without giving the former Templar a second to think as she had toyed with his sensual hotspot she very well knew about no thanks to his honesty weeks ago. When he moved forward she expected for his lips to caress hers in want yet again but instead she found them upon the exposed flesh of her neck, the sensation of his teeth raking against her as if to tease the thought of a bite before being followed by the ever tantalization caress of his tongue.

Y/N’s body arched, fingers curled inward as he still had her bound in his touch. Even as she rubbed into his obvious need to connect with her, the Niff found her mercy at the Lucian ever prevalent given the strength in which he enforced. But, in time, his hold loosened from her wrists and his fingertips began to sample every curve of her and every part she deemed imperfect to remind her without the use of words how much he savored the simplicity of this sort of connection—this sort of worship. The balmy blanket of his breath upon her bare skin made her moans escalate as such a tantalizing sensation bore weight upon her breasts and, in time, her erect nipples that he took care with his tongue.

Biting upon the curve of her fingers gently to silence herself, Y/N rolled her body against his own in hopes to force Ignis into bending to the needs she had. However, he was keen to ignore her and let the moment play out a bit longer as his lips enclosed in kind upon her right breast, the gentle pinch of such an act making a sharp breath flee her mouth without warning when she pulled her fingers from her.

“I-Ignis…! Oh, gods, Ignis…!” Y/N praised though also doing her best to hide the small tremors of pain that ushered through her given the milk that was stored there unbeknownst to him.

Ignis pulled back slowly regardless, his palm tending to her outer thigh to settle her. “Not harming you, am I?”

Coming back from her euphoric high, Y/N stuttered over an answer. “N-Not at all,” she lied to the best of her ability. “I was merely lost in the moment…”

He hardly viewed that as a reason, but regardless, Ignis didn’t press the matter as he tenderly nudged against her forehead with his own. His heavy breathing through his nostrils was soothing and almost animalistic in some sense. The heavy press of the warm air was still, nevertheless, lulling and allowed the two a moment of silence to prepare for what was to come as they enjoyed in the sweet kissing of the other.

Ignis’ nose nuzzled against Y/N’s cheek as he steadied himself, the weight of his body moving in such a way that she was aware of what the advisor was preparing to do. “I will be gentle, my dear. If it becomes too unpleasant, please inform me.”

Y/N knew if he focused anywhere but her stomach and breasts, she would be fine. Her legs parting to give him room, she waited for the beginning sensation of pain as Ignis pushed slowly past the lips of her entrance with a low, drawn out moan that Y/N savored in given how rare the sound. Focusing on the rarity, she easily ignored the minor bouts of tenderness at being penetrated and found the man she loved embracing her close to his chest as he fully connected with her in that blissful moment.

Rolling her body in unison with his gentle pushes within her, Y/N nipped and gently tugged upon his earlobe to excite him further; causing his moans to escalate and become a bit more vocal at such a sensitive part of him being toyed with by his lover. It was in that instant she felt him blindly increase his speed.

Crying out in heated delight, Y/N did everything she could to match his aggressive rhythm, their bodies lewdly slapping upon the other, but apparently the advisor wasn’t keen on such a rough way about expressing himself on her body and quickly shook free of the fog she accidentally clouded his mind with.

“F-Forgive me,” he panted heatedly, nuzzling against her cheek to try and sense how Y/N was fairing. “I didn’t harm you, did I?”

“N-Not at all,” she breathed out, kissing his lips in a heated flurry as her climax was rapidly approaching. “Just let me enjoy you…let me have you…!”

Hardly needing much more incentive than that, Ignis sheathed himself completely within her warmth. His lips escaping hers, he trailed them down to the nape of her neck once more to roll the flat of his tongue against the warm flesh before his teeth trailed shortly after—and it was there Y/N felt the added heated release of the advisor, encouraging the budding climax within to finally give bloom and excite her walls to crumble and squeeze the intruding length.

His name, held firm in a gasp, quivered forth as she embraced his naked form, which was wet with sweat from the excitement and the loving reminder of what still remained in his grasp. He nearly collapsed upon her and for a mere moment Y/N did feel his weight but that uncomfortable second was quickly forgotten as he pulled from her and moved to the side of the bed where he cradled her head close to his chest to let the woman feel of the alluring expand of it whenever he breathed.

“I love you, Y/N,” he murmured wearily, planting a kiss upon her head.

“And I love you,” Y/N spoke softly in return, her arm draped over his side as she curled her fingers inward to keep Ignis close—worrying if she did let go, she’d lose him again.

**——-Weeks Later——-**

Hammerhead was to be their last true stop till they finally made it to the Crown City. Even as the road curved just down the way leading to their final destination, Y/N had to admit her heart was in the pit of her stomach. During their journey onward, she began to feel a bit more at ease around King Noctis and Gladiolus the Shield to the King. She didn’t speak near as much to them in comparison to Prompto or Ignis, but the comfort of being in their presence was starting to arise all the same.

Regardless, she still couldn’t help but wonder what Noctis would truly do upon their arrival in Insomnia. He did acknowledge she was part of the Empire’s plan to capture him and bring him to his knees, but he would not forget all she had done to free him and Gladiolus as well. It made it sound like her sentence would be lessened, but Y/N was not freed from it completely.

When Prompto found out from Y/N that she had indeed gotten Sal to steal some of the plans and information regarding their cloning process back in Niflheim when she was trying to get the prison defenses down, he insisted that Cindy at Hammerhead might be the one to talk to in regards to finding some parts she needed as the mechanic seemed to know the area well enough in where most mechanical things were hidden.

While the others ate at the nearby diner, Y/N located this curly blond mechanic—noticing such a woman tending to one of the cars just within the garage. Her hair was tied back in a messy bun with pieces of her curly locks falling about her dirty cheeks. The yellow, partially zipped up jacket resembling Hammerhead was accompanied by some dark, torn jeans and gray shoes that had seen better days if Y/N had to be honest.

“Umm, uh…Cindy?” Y/N asked nervously.

She turned at the mere sound of her name, a smile giving further life to herself and the rather grungy garage as well. “Well howdy,” she greeted in return. “What can I do for ya?” She removed the gloves on her hands as they were covered in grease before turning her attention completely to the conversation at hand.

“My-My name is Y/N and I came with King Noctis and his friends.” It felt weird saying that all things considered. “I was, uh, told by Prompto you could maybe help with something that’s not really cars related but mechanical in nature.”

“Well that man can certainly sing my praises to the moon like any ol’ howler,” Cindy spoke with an added, charming laugh at the thought. “If it is cars you’re talking about, I’m your gal, but anything else…” She paused, a finger moving to her lips in thought. “While I can’t say I am a miracle worker, Y/N, I will be more than happy to help in any way that I can. Watcha need?”

Y/N nodded, pulling out Sal to boot up the schematics she was able to retrieve back from the palace. “All I really need is help getting this sort of thing put together.” Cindy moved closer to get a look, her olive green eyes shifting about to intake everything the screen displayed with a bit of wonderment to her expression, having never seen a device like Sal before. “And by that I mean just help in getting the parts, really. I can do the rest.”

“I will tell ya right now that a load of these parts ya need are easy to find here in the shop,” Cindy insisted cheerfully. “Glass, cylinder tubing—most of that is just plum needed here. While I am aware that tubing may need to be a bit bigger for what I see ya got planned, I can fix that up for ya real nice, Y/N, before heading it out your way in the Crown City if ya just give me the place.”

Y/N’s eyes widened in excitement, bringing Sal close to her chest once more. “R-Really?”

“Anythin’ I can’t find here well—I know a guy for one, but I also know a few places left to look for it,” Cindy offered, hand upon her hip as her heel crossed over her other foot in an idle stance.

“Thank you so much!” Y/N praised with relief, glad to know she could finally find a way to bring her friend back to life in some manner. She knew it wouldn’t be Sulista but a true clone and her own person in time. However, it would give Sal freedom and perhaps the chance at love she kept hoping for when it came to her closeness to Prompto. “If I owe you anything just let me know, and I’ll uh—get Ignis to help with that.” Y/N had to remind herself she was low on funds and Ignis had been taking care of much of that as of late when it came to the gil he needed for hotel arrangements and chocobo rentals as well as the new clothes she was wearing.

“No sweat,” Cindy insisted. “Besides, those boys been a right help around this shop for years, and I owe them, so I’ll be happy to do what I can for free.” A worried frown could be seen upon her lips given the heavy lighting of the garage given the late hour. “Just curious if ya plan on making this one yourself though.”

“Well, umm, yeah,” Y/N answered, scratching the back of her head. “I was kind of the data nerd and machines expert where I’m from. I don’t think the guys would know how to help me if they tried.”

Cindy’s arms crossed upon her chest, the frown of concern remaining. “Y’all don’t plan on doing this right away now, right? It would be crazier than a moogle in a chocobo race with the condition you’re in.”

“P-Pardon?” Y/N hesitated, not sure what this mechanic was getting at.

She smiled, tilting her head to the side to give Y/N a knowing look. “I meant the baby.” Cindy gestured towards Y/N’s stomach, which had grown a bit more in the past few weeks though the clothing did its best to hide most of it. “How far along are ya?”

Y/N pulled on the jacket she had buttoned up in hopes to hide it further, not realizing it was still that obvious. “Umm…I don’t know, really,” she confessed, powering down Sal for the evening to conserve her battery power. “I kind of got pregnant on my journey with them…”

“Oh, wow—really!” Cindy gasped in excitement with a smile all the same. “Caught up in that there scuffle with Niflheim trying to save His Majesty, were ya? Y’all seemed to make it out alright, so I won’t bring up the bad.” Her grin widened. “So, who is the father?”

Her fingers drummed nervously upon her device. “I-Ignis is.”

“And judging by your voice ya ain’t told him, hu?”

Y/N raised her head slightly. “That obvious?”

“I wasn’t born yesterday, Y/N,” she teased. “I guess it’s easy to keep something like that from a blind man. While that’s honestly none of my business I still feel ya ought to tell him,” urged Cindy gently as she turned away from the conversation then, remembering she had work to do. “Write down what ya need me to find before ya go leaving tomorrow, and I’ll fetch it for ya when I can. Now, I best get back to work, but if ya need anything else just give a holler.”

Y/N nodded, waving goodbye to Cindy for the evening as she knew the guys would either still be in the diner or waiting at the caravan. Thinking about the plans and items she needed in regards to making a cloning chamber, a voice beckoned to her not far away.

“Not eating well, were you?”

Hearing Ignis’ voice made Y/N cringe as the tone insinuated he heard enough when she was talking to Cindy. “Wh…What do you mean?” Y/N stuttered horribly, noticing Ignis there in the dark with his arms crossed and his brand new visor in place.

Ignis pushed from where he was resting against the wall, heading over towards Y/N with a disapproving sigh appearing as crystalline vapor on the chill in the air. “Y/N, how long were you planning on keeping that a secret from me?”

“I-I wasn’t forever! Just until the trial was over!” Y/N insisted, backing away from his advances even if she knew he wouldn’t hurt her. It was a kneejerk reaction to someone being obviously cross with her.

“Y/N, you’ve not eaten properly for weeks now!” Ignis reminded her, his voice raised in concern. “You’ve been practically starving yourself just for the sake of this secret?” He sighed once more. “How long have you known…?” There was a sort of dread in his tone as if not wanting to know the whole story.

“Since back in Niflheim,” Y/N answered, giving him the partial truth of it. “And I’ve not been starving myself! That I swear!” She grabbed at his gloved hand, squeezing it tightly. “Prompto…knew, and he was giving me some of his food too or other things he bought at the stores.”

Ignis removed the visor, squeezing the bridge of his nose as if to combat a headache. “Y/N, you are going to a nutritionist once this is over,” the advisor warned as he moved his hand to her stomach to try and glean how far along she may very well be. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Y/N held his wrist, keeping his hand in place if he so wished to enjoy the connection with his child. “Because I…I didn’t want the King to know, and I didn’t want that to sway his decision or anything.”

“You would have intentionally let a baby suffer a punishment with you?” Ignis scolded more than asked it felt.

She didn’t have an answer to what Ignis now deemed stupidity. “I don’t know what you want me to say…” Her forehead found rest against his chest in time. “I thought this is what you always wanted.”

His arms moved to embrace her, cradling the back of her head as his cheek found rest upon her tresses. “It is and always has been but don’t be so inattentive with our child growing inside of you,” Ignis pleaded quietly.

Y/N moved her mouth to one side, a pang of guilt stiffening her body as she reflected on her reckless behavior back in Niflheim just trying to keep Ignis alive.

—

While she was hardly revered a criminal upon setting foot in Insomnia Y/N still felt the ever stared upon outsider the moment she exited the Regalia and made her way to the castle of Insomnia.

A woman with a decorative, golden crown that lay flat upon her forehead yet woven intricately about black jewels on either side of her forehead stood in wait near the front entrance. Her gown, which reached her feet, was black in color too. A flared sleeve was on her right arm while the other was absent and cut nearer to the shoulder, Y/N admired the fair colored jewelry upon the exposed arm and the golden fastening that hung upon her hips and flowed in a decorative pattern down before her legs that almost looked identical to the decorative design that hung from the back of King Noctis’ clothing. Her hair was brown in color, decorative in a braided bun like pattern so it was hard to say how long or short it truly was. Her eyes were the same color, the Templar noticed, the closer they got to one another.

There was a small boy in her arms—had to be the young Prince Helios Lucis Caelum she heard about but never truly saw. His hair was black like his fathers but the eyes carried the innocents of his mother. The child had to have been at least two years of age.

“Noctis…!” Queen Maeve gasped as she closed the distance between them, her free arm outstretched to catch her beloved as the two embraced tearfully. “By the gods, I feared the worst…! The papers proclaimed you dead while others said you had joined the Empire! I only had Ignis’ and Prompto’s messages to give me any sense of closure in the matter.” Her body shook uncontrollably as she released the anguish she had been feeling in those long, few months.

“I am here, Maeve,” Noctis whispered for her to hear though his words carried strength. He did his best to kiss away her tears as he furrowed his brow in concern for her and the pain she went through with so many thoughts and no answers to his disappearance. “I am so sorry for having you all worried.”

Helios grabbed onto his father’s cheeks to order his attention before kissing his face in greeting. While he was aware his mother was worried and he knew his father had been gone for awhile, Helios was dismissed with the idea it could mean anything bad; though too young to truly understand completely what was going on, the Lucian Prince was just happy to have his dad home after going some nights crying for him. “Daddy!” the young boy cheered, pulled from his mother’s embrace in time and moved into his father’s.

Holding his son tightly in his arms, Noctis breathed in relief at having that chance again. “Hey, kiddo, it is so good to see you again! Daddy is happy to be home,” he chuckled, gently cradling the back of Helios’ head as the King let the fear of any harm befalling his son slip away from his chest.

Seeing the scene before her, Y/N swallowed back her nauseous guilt. “Guess war never is easy when you see it from both sides,” she whispered to Ignis in regards to the thought Noctis could have died at any point during such a thing, losing his wife and child. “I was always told the King of Lucis was a tyrant, keeping magic in the hands of only a select few—also being horribly cruel to Niffs…”

“The ability to summon weapons usually falls to the royals and those that serve him,” Ignis reminded Y/N, his left arm bound across his chest while the other remained at his side in a form of respect to the King and Queen of Lucis. “When His Majesty found out the origins of Prompto, he worked beside Prompto to try and unify the two kingdoms, and while his pleas have obviously fallen on deaf ears, the King still tries valiantly to bring down the walls regarding Lucis and Niflheim for a chance at peace and unity.”

Y/N sighed, turning to look at the King once more and see him as more a peaceful and loving man than that of her own. Would peace even be possible…?

With the Queen and the Prince sated with the knowledge Noctis had returned, they allowed him the peace he required in heading to the throne room with Ignis and the others as they kept Y/N contained in the center of their walk, still regarding her as the prisoner who had attempted to plot against Noctis.

Gladiolus’ harsh grasp took to Y/N’s upper arm, making her freeze in her steps there at the bottom of where the staircases on either side of the throne room led up to the throne itself. Prompto remained opposite where Gladiolus stood beside the female Niff as Ignis and Noctis ascended the staircase with the King upon the throne and Ignis to his left side. Y/N witnessed as Ignis seemed to lean in towards Noctis, whispering something of importance in his ear (perhaps) only to have the King of Lucis raise his hand as if to dismiss the words.

“Y/N, Templar of Niflheim,” Noctis began, making her knees nearly buckle at the tone, “you are brought before the crown today for your crimes against the royal family of Lucis—namely, her King.” His voice was stern, as though he had forgotten everything she had truly done to save him. “Charged with theft of a royal vehicle and confidential information, illegal data mining, and plotting against the King of Lucis, how do you plea?”

Y/N sighed to herself even as she felt Prompto’s eyes upon her as well as Gladiolus’. “Guilty,” she answered, not sure how this could turn in her favor as it were.

The entire room was silent as Noctis leaned back against the royal throne, his hands clasped together before him. “That being said,” he began yet again, his voice a bit softer this time, “you aided my friends in finding and rescuing myself and Gladio, risked your life to save Ignis, deleted the data you stole from his phone of your own accord and returned the Regalia.”

She laughed nervously about that last part. “Well, umm…technically, the Regalia ran out of gas—.”

Prompto harshly nudged her upper arm with his elbow to make her stop talking in his own way.

Noctis laughed to himself. “I assume you want your punishment now, right?” He gazed down upon her so lightheartedly that it made Y/N wonder if he was merely putting on the harsher tone and listing off her crimes only for her sake and not in care of his own.

Y/N nodded.

“Very well,” said the Lucian royal with a shrug of his brow. “I enlist you under the care of the Hand of the King—Ignis Scientia.”

Y/N blinked and gazed up at the two, unsure of where this was going even as Gladiolus removed his grasp from her arm at that moment.

“I would say…” Noctis pause and thought on the matter. “…for as long as you wish to remain under his care. Y/N, I will have those nearby keeping a close watch on you for the next year at least as an act of probation of where your loyalties lie.” He gestured towards her. “You will be accompanied by Ignis, Gladiolus, or Prompto at all times; especially outside of Citadel grounds and do as they ask of you. As far as your Templar title is concerned, it holds no weight here, so I would ask that after that year’s time in probation you consider another position here. Admittedly, we do not have a royal technician, so that offer is on the table, Y/N.”

“I thank you with all of my heart, Your Grace,” Y/N spoke in relief as she bowed before the King of Lucis. “I will certainly consider the possibilities.”

Noctis merely nodded. “As I was just informed by Ignis, you have a doctor’s appointment to attend to. I hope it goes well. This private session is over—dismissed.”

Gladiolus’ phone seemed to go off shortly after as if on cue, causing the Shield to tend to it as Ignis descended the staircase to join Y/N and the others. “Gloria is going to kill me the moment she manages to get her hands around my neck,” he murmured as if Y/N should know that name. “Been blowing up my phone ever since she knew I was alright and now furious I am not home yet.”

“In the doghouse for you again, big guy?” Prompto teased with a lopsided grin.

Y/N gazed between everyone in confusion. “Who is—?”

“Gladio’s wife and mother of his two, soon to be three, daughters as she is expecting another soon,” Ignis clarified upon overhearing the conversation.

The Shield sighed with a roll of his amber eyes at something he came across on his cell. “She’s a short one with a lot of strength.”

“Yeah, whenever she’s mad at him she grabs a chair and just yells at him,” Prompto said with a laugh.

Y/N blinked in concern at those statements combined. “She hits you with a chair?” she asked with a worried frown.

“Gladio is six foot six inches and his wife is…well… ** _vertically_**  challenged in comparison to him, one might say,” Ignis answered with his own hidden smile.

“She’s five foot two inches,” Gladiolus answered, his attention primarily on his phone as he was texting back his wife. “Whenever she’s mad at me she grabs a chair, stands on it, and yells in my face—or tries to. When she does, I forget what we were even talking about, because I cannot stop laughing.”

“It is too funny not to witness!” Prompto admitted, still laughing at the thought when he got to see it.

“Afraid we must miss it,” spoke Ignis as he took Y/N’s hand within his own upon trailing his touch from her shoulder to her palm. “We have a doctor’s appointment to attend in regards to our own young one.”

Gladiolus pocketed his phone once more with a smile to them. “Congrats, you two,” his low voice hummed.

“Hope it goes well!” Prompto chimed in quickly with a wave ‘goodbye’ as they left the throne room.

As Y/N stepped out into the corridor she was met with the Queen of Lucis once more and her son, Helios in her arms. The former Templar froze in her tracks as the woman appeared as though she were on the verge of tears. “Mind if I stop you both for just a moment, Ignis?” Queen Maeve asked kindly.

Ignis bowed at the sound of her voice. “Of course not, my Lady, but I am loathed to inform you that we have an appointment to attend soon.”

“It will be brief,” Maeve insisted with a gentle touch upon his shoulder to relax the advisor. The little boy leaned against his mother, finding rest near the nook of her neck as his fingers curled near his mouth in a shy hum at the new face and apparently being a bit intimidated by Ignis. The Queen’s brown eyes turned to Y/N then, making the pregnant woman’s stomach knot up and feel even heavier. Maeve’s lower lip quivered as she grabbed Y/N’s hand to hold it like she was the Lady of Lucis’ equal. “Thank you for saving him,” she whispered, Maeve’s words quivering as they crumbled under the foundation of fear that she could have lost her husband. “You could have left him to die, and I appreciate you for returning him to us.”

Y/N’s lower lip trembled, uncertain of what to say at first as she wasn’t expecting that response from the Queen of Lucis. “I-You-I was sorry I was sent to do so in the first place, My Lady, but I honestly didn’t do much in regards to saving him.”

“You did more than enough,” Maeve spoke honestly, removing her hand from Y/N with a smile. “I shouldn’t keep you both any longer than I have. I merely wished to express my gratitude.”

Noticing that Ignis and Y/N were about to leave, Helios opened and closed his hand with it outstretched towards them, whispering a ‘bye, bye’ to them before his mother turned and headed to the throne room to see her husband once more.

“Not been around royalty much?” Ignis asked at a low voice as he escorted Y/N through the halls of the Citadel as he knew them quite well in his years living there.

Y/N scoffed playfully. “What gave you that idea?” The elevator opening for them to continue down to the main lobby once more, she shook her head at the mere thought of her being about royalty while entering with him. “I never really had to have an audience with anybody other than Ivayle or some other general that was about me in regards to my station. I left the communing with the royals to my superiors.”

“Explains the nervous tenor,” chuckled the advisor as the elevator descended. “Since His Majesty has left you primarily in my care, I will show you where we’ll be living here in the Citadel upon our return.”

Y/N smiled to herself, fidgeting with her jacket she had in place upon her. “Being under your care is probably the best punishment I could hope for.”

The doctor visit went well enough though; as she expected, she was needed to gain more weight and have a better balanced diet in terms of calcium at the very least to which Ignis took note of. Returning to the Citadel felt like she was visiting on peace treaty business and hardly sunk in that she was there to stay even with all the signs staring her in the face.

Guiding to a western part of the palace, Y/N was escorted into Ignis’ own personal apartment he was allowed on the premises. It was an apartment like any other with a small hallway leading into the living room and kitchen space, a radio on the coffee table and a large, black leather sofa that was turned from the wall length windows behind it. The sofa seemed to face nothing except the wall but given the hardly decorated credenza opposite it and the coffee table, Y/N assumed it was meant to house a TV, but what would a blind man need with that anyways? Just beyond the kitchen was another small hallway, leading to his bedroom and bathroom she assumed.

“It looks nice,” Y/N commented, her hand admiring the feel of the leather sofa. “No TV, hu? The credenza looks empty without one.”

Ignis could tell she was teasing, and he smiled. “I never required a television with all things considered,” he reminded her, casually touching his visor. “The radio tells me more than enough as of late.” As he placed his keys off to the side in a nearby basket he had at the end of the small corridor, Ignis joined Y/N and rested his palm worryingly upon her stomach. “How do you feel?”

Y/N held onto his wrist, leaning upward to kiss his lips to calm him. “I’m fine. I promise. Just a little tired is all.”

It was the middle of the day making Ignis motion to where he knew the hallway was in relation to his sofa. “First room on the left is my bedroom. Get comfortable, my dear, and I will bring you a glass of milk to drink before you settle down for a rest.”

“Will you come and join me?” Y/N questioned, still new to this city and being in the Crown City’s Citadel. “I-I know you probably have things to do, but—.”

“—I will be there shortly,” Ignis said gently, urging her onward. “Go on.”

Y/N nodded, heading for the bedroom with her fingers fidgeting along the way. She kept debating on when would be a good time to tell Ignis the entire truth. Right now, everything just felt calm and relaxing. The last thing she wanted to hear was him stressing out again or getting upset she made such a bargain with the gods.

The doorknob of his bedroom door was soon in sight.  _I’ll tell him in time_ , Y/N assured herself as she allowed herself into Ignis’ room.

It was a small room with a large enough bed for two near the curtained windows. A desk full of books stretched along the wall facing the end of the bed with a closet and vanity to the right part of the space. Again, not much to look at but she had to remind herself who owned the space. Honestly, a bed was fine enough in terms of admiring what was there and after she removed her jacket and shoes, Y/N got herself comfortable under the covers as she knew shopping for a new wardrobe would have to come later.

Since he was merely fetching milk, Ignis was able to join her the moment she was about to lie down on her side. “Here you are, Y/N. Drink this before you rest.”

“Thank you,” she praised, accepting the glass and drinking it rather quickly given how thirsty she was.

Ignis sat on the bedside, removing his boots and jacket at least for the idea of resting momentarily under the covers beside Y/N. As he got himself comfortable for doing so, the advisor gently found rest near her stomach, his cheek upon the upper curve of the swelling with his palm tenderly rubbing the area in which his baby grew.

Y/N smiled down at him, running her fingers through his dirty blond hair to help him relax as she reclined against the headboard of his bed.

“We’ll go shopping for your clothing and fetch some things for the baby sometime tomorrow after I attend the Council’s meeting with Noct in the morning hours,” Ignis murmured softly, the words humming against her stomach ever so.

“Can we buy a TV?” Y/N teased with a raise of her brow. “One of us is blind but the other isn’t.”

He chuckled softly. “If you promise to put off this bold endeavor to clone Sulista with the condition you’re in, I will put it into consideration,” Ignis said.

“I promise I won’t try anything,” Y/N groaned, rolling her eyes at having to wait but at least relieved she had Cindy to help her fetch the parts and Prompto to assist her in trying to put it all together and getting it working. “Besides, you are—yet again—my jailor. I am at your mercy.” Hearing about the council meeting, Y/N looked about with a worried frown. “Is the meeting anything important…?”

“Let’s not discuss such matters as of yet,” insisted Ignis as he pulled from where he was resting to let Y/N get further comfortable under the covers at her leisure. “I’d rather enjoy the peaceful hours we have together at his moment.” His fingers finding Y/N’s face with great ease, he turned her towards him, urging her into a loving kiss.

Falling into the tender moment, Y/N rested upon her side in time as Ignis embraced her from behind. His fingers hooking within hers, she kept his touch close to her heart as her eyes closed to try and find peace in relaxation in a city that would hopefully come to accept her as well as friends that treated her with love and respect and a man who loved and adored her, regardless their differences.


	17. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The finale piece. Another long one, because I cannot shut my trap I guess; especially in family matters. Oh well, enjoy a long epilogue. XD Woop. Thanks for the support, and thank you, Marta, for the commission!

While the months carrying a child was new and a bit burdening at times for Y/N, she eventually learned to accept the embarrassing changes she had to endure. She hated to bother Ignis at odd hours of the night for anything cheese related but it had become a bit of a necessity in terms of cravings as of late. Ignis never seemed to mind and only playfully got onto her about her wild eating habits.

“Not my fault your child demands cheese products,” Y/N playfully jabbed as they were relaxing in bed together one evening. Regardless of Ignis’ personal complaints about eating in bed, Y/N was fine to ignore him and heated up the rest of the cheese ravioli he made a night or so ago as a late night snack. The television at the foot of the bed was playing a rather adventurous and bloody fantasy tale that only she could enjoy while Ignis seemed to cringe now and again at the sound effects that made their way to his ears or the dialog that he found ‘contrived’.

“I mind not what the child requires as well as yourself, but I thought I told you frugality is best when it deals with eating at odd times,” Ignis reminded her as his fingers casually moved over the Braille upon the book he was trying to read but on occasion stopping just to listen to the movie that was playing. “Last time you chose to eat this late in the evening you woke up ill in the middle of the night. And need I remind you of my  _displeasure_  of you eating in bed?”

“That was  ** _one_**  time out of like fifty!” Y/N commented in a risen yet playful tone at Ignis even if her mouth was partially full. She heard him sigh but continued regardless. “And by the gods, calm your ass—I am not getting crumbs or anything anywhere. In fact, there are no crumbs that can get on or under the covers since it’s ravioli.” Turning her attention back to the scene before her, she watched as the plot continued to unfold in the midst of an action sequence with one of the warriors being the victor in a rather gory yet somber scene.

Ignis raised his head at the sounds and the melancholy music he could hear playing, pausing his reading to ingest what was going on even if he couldn’t see anything. “What happened? Who was the victor?” It was hard for him to tell given the dialog and how both warriors seemed to be out of breath while one muttered his last words and the other remained victorious.

“Lover boy from the good guy side died,” Y/N answered rather matter-of-factly as she casually dug at a piece of cheese stuck somewhere in her teeth. She had to admit while the movie was fairly decent she didn’t feel much for the characters to cry during some scenes. “The douche canoe is monologuing about it right now.”

“You watch the most foul things,” Ignis commented as he turned his nose up at the idea the enemy would win in such a story. “Who would wish to witness such a tragedy unfold?”

“It’s not over, calm down,” Y/N insisted, feeling her stomach giving her a bit of a problem, but she did her best to ignore it as she didn’t want to give Ignis the satisfaction he was right about eating so late in the bed. “The good guys can still win, I am sure.” Cringing at the uncomfortable pain, she put the plate off to the side on the nightstand before pausing the movie and removing the covers so she could head to the bathroom. “I’ll be right back.”

“What’s wrong?” Ignis asked, pulling from the book he was reading once more. “Are you ill? Y/N, if you’re sick again—.”

“—I am not!” Y/N interrupted quickly in hopes the lie would sound truthful enough as she straightened her gown over her swollen stomach. “I just need to go to the bathroom. Didn’t know that was such a crime,” she playfully groaned.

“If you do get sick, this is the last of it, love. No more eating in the bed late at night. I swear it,” Ignis informed her, motioning in Y/N’s direction.

She rolled her eyes, waving away his concerns as she waddled down the hallway with a heavy sigh at the minor discomfort she was feeling. As soon as Y/N opened the door and let herself into the dark marbled bathroom she felt a rush of water between her legs, startling her as the pain increased just a fraction. Hand upon her stomach and the other finding support on the nearby counter, she breathed heavily to try and calm herself until realizing that the signs could very much clear at her being in labor.

“I-Ignis…!” she beckoned, hearing the man in a matter of moments remove himself from the bed and hurry down the hallway to her side.

“What’s the matter?” Ignis asked only to take one step to feel the dampness on the floor and realize what could be the problem.

“I think my water just broke…!” Y/N answered as she had never really known what the sensation would feel like beyond what she was told and what she read with Ignis weeks ago.

Taking her hands into his own, Ignis guided her out of the bathroom and to the living room where he escorted her grasp to the sofa. “Just wait right here, Y/N,” he advised calmly but even the technician could tell that he was doing his best to hide the slight stress and panic in his words given the moment. “I need to grab a few things, and we will be on our way.”

It was pain she could endure, at least—not near as bad as she was expecting right away, so Y/N merely concentrated on her breathing while Ignis grabbed the pre-prepared bag of their belongings, his shoes, and his phone to call the hospital as well as a taxi. During the call to the hospital he had brought a towel he kept nearby in case Y/N’s water did break and aided her in drying off before handing another to her.

“Be sure to sit on this when we get inside the taxi.” Ignis instructed as he escorted her carefully outside where they could wait for the car.

It was agonizing hours, and hours that Y/N would say were the worst if she could remember how harsh that naga attack was a year or so ago. Her gripping onto Ignis’ hand was so tight that the advisor had to swap hands every now and again just to be certain she didn’t nearly break it like Gladiolus claimed Gloria almost did to him during the birth of their fist child. The screams of pain eventually subsided when it all finally came to a slow and steady end when the child was born around sometime after two in the morning.

Y/N slowed her breathing, relaxing her death grip on Ignis’ hand when the baby was brought into view and the ever fragile and pitiful cries of the newborn soothed the anxious, blind father. Turning his head to where he could hear his lover, Ignis brought her knuckles to his lips to kiss her and applaud her for the tiring task.

“Are you alright, Y/N?” His words quivered with a mixture of emotions—worry, happiness, and love to name a few. Before she could even answer, Ignis turned about the darkness of the room to try and glean what was happening. “How is the baby?”

Y/N gently squeezed Ignis’ hand for reassurance. “I am alright,” she panted wearily, not expecting that to have gone on for as long as it did. Resting would be appreciated about then for sure.

“Congratulations,” one of the nurses praised as they worked on cleaning the infant upon it being laid to rest on Y/N’s stomach. “It’s a little girl!”

Ignis seemed to stutter a small, unbelievable laugh as Y/N had been insisting for awhile it would be a girl. He kept asking her to keep her options open just in case she was wrong, but having the reality placed before him, the advisor couldn’t help but chuckle at how his lover just seemed to know what the baby would be. “A little girl? H-How is she?” he asked, only able to tell the child was feeling a bit displaced given the circumstances.

With the newborn ushered into Y/N’s arms, she smiled in absolute delight at the sight after the scare she had been given months ago. “C’mere and see for yourself,” Y/N encouraged, reaching for Ignis’ nearest hand to shepherd it to the baby’s face where he could touch and connect with his daughter.

His scarred sight opened, Ignis saw nothing but his trembling touch took in everything in regards to seeing what he wanted and needed to see. “Hey there, little princess,” Ignis whispered, feeling her move ever slightly against his touch. “May I hold her myself?”

“In a moment you can,” instructed one of the nurses as they began to check to make sure everything was alright in regards to the infant. “We just need to make sure the little one doesn’t need any urgent care right away. Shouldn’t take too long.” The raven haired nurse ran the few tests she needed while the baby remained in Y/N’s arms. “If you take a seat, Ignis, we will hand her to you when we’re done.”

His hand fondling for the rim of the chair Ignis knew was nearby, he sat down though keeping a tight grasp onto Y/N’s hand, which wearily remained clasped in his grip. “How does she look?” Ignis asked, hating he couldn’t see for himself but even his own way of sight took him only so far.

Y/N turned, looking down at the baby not even sure what to say. “Like a baby,” she answered lightheartedly. “She has blondish hair…I think…? Her hair looks…more white than it does blond…” Y/N wasn’t certain what would cause that, but a part of her prayed that Ignis wouldn’t doubt the baby was his.

Ignis tilted his head in concern. “It’s not albinism, is it?”

“No, it doesn’t appear so,” answered one of the nurses as she checked the infant over at the mention to be certain of the case. “She still has pigment in her eyelashes and eyebrows, so it may just be the hair is so light in blond it looks white for now. Babies have a tendency to change in hair and eye color as they age. Alright,” she continued as she wrapped the infant in a blanket before taking their child into her arms. “Are you ready to hold her, daddy?”

Nodding, Ignis opened his arms and waited for the weight of the child to be placed within them. His daughter in his embrace, Ignis moved his free hand yet again with loving care to caress her forehead, drift down the side of her cheeks to find from there where her nose and mouth were before letting her tiny hand grab upon his index finger when his caress came close to her own. Feeling the small frail grasp upon him, Ignis opened his eyes once more to stare ahead as tears spilled over and cascaded down his cheeks at realizing the life within his hold. While it inwardly pained him he couldn’t see her, being able to hold her was good enough and it was there he brought her closer to his chest with a kiss to her forehead to count the blessing in his life.

—

Y/N remained in the hospital with Ignis staying by her side as the others would occasionally come in to check in on them. Arriving a bit later than everyone else, Noctis managed to be escorted to Ignis’ and Y/N’s room when he found a moment to escape from his duties at the Citadel, Maeve and Helios with him as well.

“Hey, Iggy,” Noctis beckoned, noticing the advisor sitting in a chair near Y/N’s hospital bed with their daughter in his arms. His words were whispered, noting that Y/N was asleep given the late hour and how sick the medicine had made her in the past day or so. “How are things?”

Ignis smiled at the familiar, warming voice. “Good to see you, your Majesty,” he spoke formally. “Lady Maeve here as well and Prince Helios?” He could only guess given the sound of Maeve’s footsteps upon the hard flooring.

“We are,” Maeve answered on her husband’s behalf. “We would have been here sooner but you know how it is.” As the Lady of Insomnia held Helios, she noted that her son’s eyes were looking at the baby in Ignis’ arms. Bouncing her two-year-old on her hip just a bit, she noticed him pointing at it with interest. “Yes,” she spoke softly to him, taking his fingers and kissing them. “It’s a baby.”

Ignis laughed quietly to himself. “Even myself finding time off to tend to the mother of my child and my newborn was difficult in of itself, my Lady. You need not apologize.”

“How is Y/N and how is the baby?” Noctis asked, taking the bouquet of flowers he had in his hands as a gift to them to place near the others Gladiolus, Iris, Prompto, Cor, and Gloria had given to them to name a few people. Ignis’ status in Insomnia was well known and respected and when news of him having a child spread, more things were sent, but they had to be taken back to his apartment at the Citadel so as not to flood the hospital room.

“Y/N is doing a bit better,” Ignis answered, his head turning on instinct to where he knew she was resting in the hospital bed. “The anesthetic they gave her has been rough on her. She’s been having difficulty eating or drinking without vomiting, but she appears to have done well in the past twenty hours.” He smiled. “I have hopes we’ll be home in a day or so if it keeps up.” Ignis shifted the infant in his arms at the mere thought of her, hearing the coos and hums ever so often as she slept. “As for Eliza, she’s doing just fine. No complications or anything.”

“Eliza, hu?” Noctis asked as he hadn’t a chance to hear of anything and was avoiding the newspapers as he’d rather hear it from his friend’s mouth than someone else’s. The King came in closer, looking down at her in the meager lamp lighting as Ignis turned off the other lights so as not to disturb Y/N as she slept. “She looks beautiful. May I hold her?”

Ignis nodded, allowing Noctis to take the newborn as he so wished even if the advisor wanted to be selfish and continue to hold her a bit longer.

Seeing the baby in his father’s arms, Helios pointed to her again and said something that was a bit hard to decipher given his age. “What was that, sweetheart?” Maeve asked, kissing his cheek as the prince’s brown eyes remained on Eliza with interest.

“Sh-She is little,” Helios repeated a bit clearer that time.

“She’s about the same size as you were, little guy,” Noctis chuckled, recalling that memory well when it came to the birth of his own son. The King of Lucis did notice how Helios kept looking at Eliza and smiled. “Want to try and hold her, kiddo?”

Hearing that, Ignis’ brow wrinkled curiously. “Would be wise for the young Prince to get acquainted with his advisor-to-be,” he admitted with a tender grin.

Maeve moved to the sofa with Helios, supporting his arms and instructing him what to do. “Remember, she’s very delicate like butterfly wings, so just hold her like this. Mommy’s going to help you, okay?”

With his arms being bridged underneath by his mother, Noctis helped situate Eliza in Helios’ embrace to let him look at the baby. Helios was very lost in the moment, just looking down at Eliza who slept peacefully still. Noctis knelt in front of the sofa to keep an eye on everything and safeguard the child. “She’s going to be your advisor one day, Helios,” Noctis reminded him in a whisper. “Kind of how Ignis is always there for daddy and reminds him of his meetings and things.”

“And eat his veggies,” Helios added, causing Ignis to snort laugh briefly in the background as the comment caught him off guard.

Noctis sighed to himself with a playful roll of his eyes. “Aah, that too, so Eliza might end up doing the same to you.” He gently pinched his son’s cheek. “I say prepare yourself.”

“I will raise her well in that regard,” Ignis swore teasingly from where he cleared his throat against his fist to try and excuse the sudden laugh from earlier. “That I swear.”

–

When Y/N was finally well enough to go home with Ignis and Eliza, she was more than surprised to see everything that the people had given them—it almost made shopping feel like such a waste.

“We’re going to live here with all of these things?” Y/N asked quietly so as not to wake the sleeping baby in her arms. “It covers most of the living room.”

“I’ll sort through a few of these gifts with Prompto tomorrow,” Ignis informed as he tried to find his way through the maze himself with his lover. “You’re welcome to join us if you choose to, love. We’ll see what we can keep and, perhaps, give the rest as a donation. I would give some of it to Gloria and Gladiolus with their child on the way, but he receives quite the collection himself when news spreads.”

“If I can pry my weary ass out of bed, I’ll join you,” Y/N answered, nuzzling against Ignis’ chest.

“Do not force yourself, my dear,” he insisted, kissing the top of her head as he managed to find his way free of the cluster and to the hallway leading to their bedroom. “If you do not feel like joining us then it will be alright. We will manage just fine.” His palm fondled effortlessly for the light switch, allowing Y/N a better chance at seeing where she was going. “How are you feeling? Is the baby alright?”

Y/N concealed her laugh in her throat at Ignis’ constant worries as she ventured to the crib in the bedroom to get the infant comfortable. “I am just fine, and so is Eliza.”

“Does Eliza need to eat?”

Y/N shook her head, turning to Ignis to kiss the corner of his lip to calm him. “She’s just fine. Let her sleep for now. She’ll let us know when she’s hungry.” Her hands found the advisor’s, her forehead feeling great relief against his chest. “C’mon, let’s try and get you situated in regards to where the milk will be in the fridge in case you want to feed her.” Y/N knew Ignis was pretty knowledgeable without his sight but whenever something changed it did make things complicated for him as he was only as good as repetition and vibrations. Upon making it into the kitchen area, she opened the refrigerator door and took note of how many bottles she had prepared as her breasts had been hurting horribly before the baby was born, requiring her to use the breast pump. “Okay…there are four bottles already in here. Did you want them in a specific place?”

Ignis outstretched his hand. “Just show me where they are, and I can make sense of the rest.”

She took his wrist, guiding his fingertips inward to where the bottles were. “They’re right ahead for now—to the left of the actual carton of milk we have.” Y/N watched as he touched them to be certain of how they felt in comparison to other things in the refrigerator at the moment. “Do you want me to put one of those labels I made on them for you?” While she had been spending most of her time in bed, Y/N had been reading up on Braille and installing a special labeling function in Sal to help with printing such things on items if Ignis ever needed it. The reason she did it was mainly to help him in regards to her own forgetful habits in terms of putting things in the wrong places or not back where they were originally. She wasn’t used to living with a blind person, that was for sure.

“Let me figure it out on my own for now,” Ignis insisted in a rather exasperated tone. He hated feeling helpless, and he wanted to be certain he could manage this without Y/N’s help just in case she desired to rest. Closing the refrigerator door, Ignis let his mind relax for a second before opening it again and trying to remember where the bottles were. His fingertips touched the jug first before migrating over where the breast milk was to fondle the nearest bottle and realize it was the right item he was hunting for. “I’ll be alright. The cap gives it away easily in time.” Ignis closed the door once more. “Just do not move them, love.”

“I’ll probably be breast feeding her most of the times anyways,” Y/N chuckled with a shrug. “Those are more for you and my own relief as I was dying with how much that hurt to carry inside me, and Eliza taking her sweet time getting out of me sure didn’t help things.”

Ignis laughed to himself, hugging Y/N close as he kissed her cheek. “What matters is she’s here now and in fine health as are you.” His nose lovingly nuzzling against the place he kissed, the tactician brought Y/N in closer within his embrace to enjoy in the moment a bit longer.

 

**—Five Years Later—**

 

Duties about the Citadel remained the same for Ignis. Upon Y/N being freed of her crimes in regards to the past a few years ago, she had taken the title of royal technician and used her data mining and hacking skills primarily for Lucis instead of Niflheim. Ever since the crippling blow to Niflheim with the fall of Ivayle and the freedom of Noctis from the Empire’s grasp, things had been quiet—thankfully.

Standing in the throne room at the base of the staircases, Ignis heard the front doors open only to be followed by the sound of child like laughter from the now seven-year-old Helios. But he was following someone and given the frantic yet delicate sound of the feet, Ignis recognized them as his daughter’s.

“No running, you two!” Ignis scolded firmly, feeling Eliza grab onto his pant leg in time to hide behind him to escape Helios who was trying to play with her. “Last time there was such a race one of you was injured.” His brow raised accusingly in the direction of where he could sense the young prince was.

“Sorry, Iggy,” Helios apologized breathlessly. “But daddy said the tooth was going to come out soon anyways.”

“No excuse for recklessness, your Highness,” Ignis said with a soft sigh. “Do be cautious in the future.”

Turning from his father’s advisor, Helios noted Eliza remaining there behind her father’s legs. Her hair had indeed slowly turned a very white like blond color with eyes matching that of Ignis’ once green. She was terribly shy—so much so that she had been diagnosed with a form of anxiety and social fear that was called selective mutism where Eliza would just go very silent and not even talk in certain situations. Helios, not knowing any better, tried to get her to open up to him by at least speaking no matter what it took.

“Hello!” Helios beckoned to her, only to watch as Eliza shrunk back behind her father’s leg with her doll close in hand.

Ignis tilted his head downward at the two, wondering if his daughter would actively say something this time.

Again, the young prince wasn’t too certain of what was wrong with her beyond she was just ‘quiet’ according to his father and mother. Being young and a bit impatient, he stepped forward and tried to talk to her again. “I said hello!”

Ignis was mindful of where he moved his one leg that wasn’t being grappled by his child, feeling the children at his feet. “Aren’t you going to say ‘hello’ back, Ellie?” Ignis asked, moving his leg slightly to try and order her attention in his own way. He felt her grip upon him tighten, refusing to let go. “Are you scared to?”

Knowing her father was unable to see, Eliza knew to communicate with one tug for yes and two for no on his outfit if she was too scared to talk when asked a question. She shook her head, tugging twice to try and put on a brave front when really she wasn’t sure if she could find the right words to surface to the prince.

Ignis moved away as being her haven, kneeling down behind her where he placed his hands supportively on her shoulders. “Then it won’t hurt to try and say ‘hello’, will it?” he attempted to encourage, kissing her cheek. “I know you’re scared, sweetheart, but you can do it.”

Eliza moved the doll she was carrying in front of her face, trying to use that as a means to silence herself and prevent any word from surfacing.

“Shhh, it’s alright,” Ignis comforted, escorting the doll away from her face when he felt her move it so. “All you have to say is ‘hi’. Can you do that?” When Eliza seemed to not respond right away, he smiled regardless. “It’s alright if you can’t or don’t want to. I won’t make you.”

Turning back to Helios, she noticed the prince was looking at her intently as if hoping she’d say something finally. Ever since she was born he had to admit he’d only heard her talk maybe two times and one of those times was an accident of him walking in on her speaking to her father. Gathering what courage she could, Eliza embraced the doll tightly. “Hi…”

Smiling brightly at the small step in the right direction, Ignis embraced her tightly with a kiss to her cheek once more. “I am proud of you, sweetheart.”

As Helios was given a chance to hug her next with a laugh at being able to hear her talk for once in a long while, the doors opened once more allowing the urgent walk of an armored woman with long wavy, red hair to enter the room. “We’ve got an important transmission Y/N intercepted, four eyes,” she greeted without much of a care of being regal. “Care to join us?”

Taking to his feet, Ignis looked down at the Prince and Eliza. “Your Highness, take to the guards just outside the room and have them escort you both back to your mother, Lady Maeve.  ** _Walk_**  this time. I want no more accidents.” His blind sight flashed in the direction of the female voice. “Let’s go, Sulista.”

The black armored paladin nodded as she turned to leave ahead of Ignis but stopped when she heard Eliza trying to halt her father.

“D-Daddy,” Eliza whispered, grabbing at his pant’s leg again and tugging on it to make him stop.

Ignis stopped, turning to his daughter to try and settle the worries he could sense rising up inside of her. “I’ll be right back to pick you up from the Queen, sweetheart, but right now, daddy has to meet with mommy and talk about something important, okay?” When he threatened to stand back upright and leave her in the servant’s and Helios’ care, Eliza was far from shy about crying in upset at being without her father at least and in someone else’s care again. Hearing such a heartbreaking sound, Ignis faltered as he scooped her up into his arms and brought her close to his chest to sooth her.

“Just bring the little bean,” Sulista insisted, hating to see Eliza upset as well. “Your Highness, I’ll take you to one of the guards as I can hardly trust you to wander about without supervision.”

“I’ve walked around the palace a lot on my own,” he grumbled, being dismissive of the help but did so regardless knowing he was powerless to say otherwise.

“Yes, but knowing where to go and doing as we ask are two different things that sometimes don’t go hand in hand for you,” Sulista teased with a knowing, crooked smirk. “Y/N and the others are at the cluster cuss of space your wife calls a work space. I’ll be there soon.”

Ignis shushed the sobbing Eliza in attempts to sooth her with a nod at Sulista’s words to acknowledge he heard her, taking his exist out of the throne room to meet up with the others at Y/N’s workshop.

Noctis, Gladiolus, and Prompto were already there when Ignis arrived, Y/N explaining just a bit what she had unearthed without being able to replay the transmission she just intercepted since everybody wasn’t within the room. It was a wide enough room she was given to keep up to speed with the data and transmissions she received from all over just to keep a heads up on any activity that seemed out of place. However, to say she was cleanly with the space was a vast understatement as wires, tubing, oil, gears and screws to name a few things littered the room. It got to a point Ignis refused to venture inside as he could never find his way around without nearly bumping into something new or tripping over something. Y/N was always working on some new device to make something easier or some new toy that Eliza might enjoy or Aranea, Sulista’s and Prompto’s daughter who was only a few months old as of current.

Pausing in her explanation, Y/N clasped her hands together. “Oh good—you’re here, Ignis!”

Noctis turned, moving in haste to where he was to escort his friend closer to where the rest of the group was. “Eliza and Helios managed to escape Maeve, hu?”

“Indeed,” he grumbled, nearly slipping on something there on the floor but catching himself with grace given the fact he had his daughter in his arms. “I swear, the child’s playroom is not near a mess as this, Y/N!”

“You can scold me about that later,” Y/N grumbled in return, noting Eliza was in the room so expressing a more crude manner about it was not allowed. “I just picked up an awkward transmission from somewhere in Altissia. Sadly, there was interference because of the blasted lightning storm when I received it last night, but I got some parts that might be of interest to you.”

The static made the beginning parts of the message hard to understand, but they could tell someone was phoning the First Secretary in Altissia. As it began to play, Sulista eventually entered the room once more to listen to it yet again as Y/N played it to her earlier.

“…Camp…east… Gen…l…it’s…Niffs…Not quite right…”

The static became unbearable after that moment, making Y/N end the transmission. “That’s all of it, I’m afraid.”

Noctis’ brow furrowed at the mention of the Niffs, hand moving to his mouth in thought.

“Think the Empire is in Accordo somewhere?” Gladiolus asked, turning to the King of Lucis.

Noctis groaned. “Perhaps.”

“But why is what I want to know,” Ignis admitted, rocking Eliza in his arms to where he felt her beginning to settle completely and even fall asleep.

“I tried to hack into the Altissia message archives in the First Secretary’s computer and even try to unearth some recent data files just in case something may have come to surface in the past few hours, but they have a cryptic code I am worried to touch as it could lead them to believe we’re spying on them for war purposes,” Y/N confessed. “I don’t want to sound off an alarm given how neutral Accordo is to Lucis.”

“Can’t you crack it?” Prompto asked, finding it odd her machine, Sal, had done it before.

“Some codes are easy to crack because they don’t expect a nerd like me to ruffle through them, or they just assume they’re safe and settle for any simple block out firewall that’s easy to get through,” Y/N answered. “Capital data gathering is…a bit tougher and usually more foolproof given what they are guarding. Why do you think I was happier to hack Ignis’ phone years ago in comparison to sitting in Niflheim trying to get into Insomnia’s data works?”

“I don’t like how close they are to Lucis and how on edge that messenger sounded with them just being in Accordo,” Noctis admitted. “Gladio, you’re coming with me to Accordo.” He turned to Prompto and Sulista. “Between the two of you, one of you can decide on whom to come with us as I know you have your daughter to watch over.”

Prompto laughed nervously as Sulista summoned her mighty war axe, letting it rest with ease just behind her neck and over her shoulders as though the giant blade was nothing when it felt like it weighed tons to others—only Gladiolus could seem to lift it besides her. “I think Sulista would like this one. I can stay and watch Aranea this time.”

With Prompto being a few inches shorter than her, she rested her arm jokingly upon his head. “Well, aren’t you sweet letting me have all the fun,” the redhead chuckled. Sulista was a mother but she would never stop doing what she loved and that was protecting others who needed her.

“When do we head out?” Ignis asked, knowing he would be apart of the venture as well.

“Tomorrow before sunrise,” Noctis answered. “I want to get there as soon as possible.”

“I’ll stay here and try to keep you informed if I find anything else or I manage to somehow save this stupid message that got all jacked up from the storm,” Y/N groaned, hating the lightning had such awful timing. For extra measure, she even tried to smack the recording a bit to see if that would help. “Also, since you’re going Sulista—try and remember to listen to Ignis every once in awhile.”

She humphed, closing her eyes and turning her nose up at the thought. “I am not one for stealth or waiting for my target to die of old age…”

“Since when have results ever yielded themselves to brashness?” Ignis questioned in annoyance at Sulista’s behavior.

“And since when has waiting ever resulted in anything worthwhile?” she retaliated, moving her war axe to the ground to let the weight of it be heard as it hit the marble flooring.

“It was preferred when you had at least a logic chip,” Ignis confessed with an exasperated groan.

She rolled her eyes with a nasally huff. “And it was  _preferred_  when I could shut myself down and not listen to your incessant whining.”

“Quiet, the both of you!” Noctis ordered. Sulista silenced herself, leaning on her weapon as Ignis bowed in apologetic respect to his King. “I would suggest you both learn to get along or it’s going to be a long trip.”

Once back at home, Y/N helped Ignis get what he needed together for dinner that night even if she was fully aware he could handle it himself. She honestly wanted an excuse to spend what time she could with her husband before he left for who knew how long.

“Sorry about Sal,” Y/N apologized, knowing her friend could come off a bit brash at times. “She was just never one to really be patient.”

“And it shows,” Ignis grumbled, finding the lettuce, pasta, and other ingredients he needed to make a pasta salad for the evening.

Hearing how frustrated he was, Y/N smiled regardless and hugged him tightly with a kiss to his back. “Just let it go, and let’s enjoy the evening, yeah? Hey! After dinner, Eliza has something she wants to show you.” It was something she just remembered having forgotten about it after she received the transmission.

Seemed the mere mention of his daughter made the annoyance recede from Ignis as he turned to Y/N’s voice. “Mm?”

“It’s a picture of hers as she was drawing a lot earlier in the day before I had to hand her over to Lady Maeve,” Y/N continued with a shrug. “But I know you just washed your hands, so it can wait.”

“She finally said ‘hi’ to Prince Helios today,” Ignis explained, filling a bowl full of water to prepare the pasta.

“Did she? Really?” Y/N turned to notice Eliza there at the coffee table drawing again but not paying attention to the conversation. “Do you think she’s slowly breaking out of it?”

“She was still terrified, darling. It took quite a bit of coaxing to get her just to say that one word.”

Y/N sighed to herself, looking back from Ignis to Eliza again. “What should we do? She has to get better enough to speak in front of people if she’s going to be the Prince’s advisor. How can she do that if she’s too scared to even talk to him?”

“See if you cannot take her to that pediatrician that was recommended to us who specializes in these rare cases.” He motioned to where he knew he had the cucumbers nearby. “Can you cut those for me please? I am not certain how long I’ll be away and at Accordo, but it is best to see what can be done in regards to her condition.”

Eliza spoke a lot more freely when she was at the table with her parents, and given how hard it was to hear her talk anywhere else, Ignis and Y/N let her monopolize the conversation if she wanted. When it came to her meal, Ignis was pretty good about trying to keep it light for her but mostly letting her eat the pasta while encouraging the cucumbers, bits of tomatoes and lettuce while knowing she hated mushrooms and keeping those more for himself and Y/N. When the dinner was over and everything was cleaned up, Ignis sat down on the sofa to relax as he knew he’d have an early start again tomorrow.

Eliza hurried onto the sofa, tugging onto Ignis’ pants to get his attention as she held the picture in her hand. “Da-Daddy,” she stuttered quietly, crawling into his lap with her father’s help. “I make a picture.”

Ignis smiled, kissing her cheek as he brought her in close to his chest. “Are you going to show me?”

Y/N was cleaning up the area in which Eliza had been drawing not far away. Watching the two she urged her daughter with an eager nod when Y/N caught the green eyes of the child looking her way. “You can do it, baby girl. You know how to show him, right?”

Eliza took her father’s wrist, guiding his index finger to the lines on the paper to show him the things she made. “Th-This is you,” she said before moving his hand to the other parts of the picture. “And mommy is here.”

Ignis’ eyes opened, staring blankly ahead as he took in the lines that his daughter was having him trace over. “A picture of mommy and daddy? It looks beautiful, Ellie.”

As Eliza continued to show him the rest of it (the trees and grass she had added), Y/N noticed in the piles of drawing something that looked familiar to her and made her lose her breath: a blond woman with her hair done upright with what looked to be a trident and white gown next to a woman with bangs and black hair standing side by side.

_Oh no…_  Y/N thought to herself, having forgotten to tell Ignis anything in regards to what Lady Lunafreya had said would become of Eliza in time given all the excitement that had transpired upon her daughter’s birth. “Uh…Ignis, sweetie? Why don’t you get Eliza prepared for bed. I have uh…something to talk to you about.”

Ignis found Y/N’s tone odd but he did not question it for the time being as he picked up Eliza into his arms. “Come with me, sweetheart,” he whispered. “Let’s get you washed up and ready to sleep, okay?”

After giving Eliza a bath and preparing her for all the steps before bed, Ignis pulled the covers of her bed back and away before helping her to lie down for the night. Seemed she wasn’t quite ready to let go as her little fingers were good about holding about his neck tightly to the point Ignis had to tickle her sides playfully to get her to let go. “No fair!” Eliza laughed, curling upon her bed to try and stop her father’s playful attack.

Hearing her laugh and be animated in the comfort of home made the tactician smile. “Mm, daddy fights unfair,” Ignis teased, offering his palm for Eliza. “I have to go away for a few days tomorrow, okay, baby?”

“Why?” Eliza asked, taking her father’s hand and laying it to rest in her lap for the moment, her small grasp toying with his fingers.

“I have to help King Noctis and protect people with him. That’s my job,” Ignis explained simply. “I won’t be gone forever, sweetheart. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” When she didn’t respond, he wasn’t sure what she was feeling, and it concerned him when Eliza went quiet once more.  “Are you going to say goodnight to me, sweetie?”

Using her index finger, Eliza drew a heart in Ignis’ open palm as she often did whenever she lacked the proper words when she was younger to say she loved him. Her hands grabbing onto his cheeks, she kissed her father near the corner of his mouth as she was having a hard time reaching anything else. “I love you, daddy.”

Embracing her tightly, Ignis sighed out his regret that his job was endless and he couldn’t just stay home with his daughter. At times he worried she’d grow up without him there. “I love you so much, sweetheart.” Pulling reluctantly from the hug, he moved the covers up to her shoulders before turning the light off. “Do you want the door cracked open so the light can come in?” Ignis asked, knowing Eliza was still skittish about the dark.

“Yes, please.”

Ignis nodded, understanding that fear would take a bit to overcome. “Goodnight, baby girl.”

“Night,” Eliza whispered back as Ignis retreated down the hallway to locate his wife to find out what was so weirdly urgent all of a sudden.

Y/N was nervously pacing, tapping her fingertips together as she wasn’t even sure how to break this news to him. She didn’t mean to just forget, but so much was going on, and they were all just happy and peaceful that it slipped her mind.

“What’s wrong, Y/N? Your tone sounded urgent earlier,” Ignis confessed, taking her hands into his own when he was able to locate her.

“Umm, uh…I didn’t mean to forget to tell you this—so please don’t get mad at me about the delayed message,” Y/N pleaded, watching as Ignis’ worried frown turned serious as he wasn’t sure what to think on the matter just yet. “Remember when your friends said they saw the Oracle near us when I died…?”

Ignis’ eyebrow rose ever slightly at the mention of the memory. “You mean when you claimed you didn’t…?”

Y/N nervously laughed that off. “She umm…she let me live…Under one condition…” She bit at her lower lip, feeling her heart was about to explode in her chest. “…Eliza was going to be the new Oracle of Eos when the time came.”

His hands went limp in her touch, face almost pale. “Why Eliza? How did Lady Lunafreya know you were going to have a girl?”

“Again— ** _about_**  that…” Y/N paused, pulling her hold from his as she was sure he was going to be furious. “According to the nurse I saw when we first arrived in Insomnia, I apparently conceived Eliza back during our first time in the Regalia.”

“Y/N,” Ignis began in a sort of mellow anger, “you risked your life to save me when you were knowingly pregnant with our daughter?”

“Ignis, I—!”

“You died with Eliza inside of you!” Ignis hissed angrily between them, keeping his voice down so as not to wake their child down the hall. “You died taking her with you!”

“But we’re not dead! We’re alive now!” Y/N insisted, raising her hands to try and calm his growing upset in the matter. “Ignis, I’m sorry, but I wasn’t going to go through life with another person I loved gone! It wasn’t fair!”

Ignis’ hands moved to his face, calming himself to the best of his ability at reminding himself all of it was in the past and what mattered now was what was in store for the future. It still didn’t change the fact he was upset Y/N hid such a thing from him. “I will…send to you what I know about the Oracles while I am away in Accordo.”

His voice was stern, trying to settle down after the upset that was presented him. “Ignis, don’t be mad…” Y/N pleaded even if she knew he had every right to be.

He shook his head, sighing out the frustration through his nostrils before embracing Y/N in a forgiving hug. “I am sure when the time comes Noctis will relinquish the Trident of the Oracle to Eliza under Lady Lunafreya’s command. In the meantime, we have two callings for her to fulfill; one I do aim to see through to the best of my ability as thanks for the late Lady of Tenebrae for saving you and our daughter.”

 

 


End file.
